Balance
by Exploder
Summary: Tails has been physically less active as of late compared to before, using his namesakes less and less and the Tornado and other gadgets more and more. How would he deal with Eggman's newest plot if all of that were taken away from him?
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: This story is unrelated to the Concepts series. Enjoy.**

**Chapter 1**

Sonic the Hedgehog wasn't sure what made him realize it or how he had taken so long to do so, but as he did, it was enough to keep him awake throughout the night. Still in his bed, the famed speedy hero turned to glance at his best friend with whom he lived, Miles 'Tails' Prower, who was sleeping soundly on the floor mattress. The small fox had wrapped himself up in his twin bushy tails from which he got his nickname, using them as a blanket.

It was indeed a very adorable sight, but if Sonic allowed it, his snarkier side would say that that was all the fox really used those tails for nowadays, although probably not to his face.

The problem – if it could be called that – was that of balance, it seemed. Tails was capable of spinning his twin namesakes like helicopter blades to fly, even catch up with Sonic as he ran, and as weapons too. At the same time, he was an engineering genius, and naturally liked to spend time around machines, especially the airplane they owned, the Tornado. He piloted it better than Sonic did, which made him a flyer in not one, but two ways.

But then it finally occurred to Sonic that it was getting harder to remember that. Before, when the two had first become friends, they mostly got around together on foot, in a manner of speaking. As the hedgehog ran, the fox would be beside or just behind him in the air, both traveling at speeds high enough to appear as a blue and orange blur to others. Back then, they rarely used the Tornado, which belonged to Sonic, due to limited fuel and supplies, reserving it only when Dr. Robotnik repeated his endless schemes of taking over some town or city with large airborne fortresses, or to cross oceans. For the mad scientist's robots on the ground, the duo would simply deal with them head on with their own unique fighting talents.

And that was what awakened Sonic. In the past year or so, they didn't really seem to move around or race each other anymore. Tails spent much more time with the Tornado than he did at first, and was pretty much always in it now even when Robotnik wasn't around. Aside from the plane, there were also other gadgets that he liked to work on in the workshop, and the hours he spent in there had also gradually increased.

There wasn't anything wrong with that, Sonic told himself. It's a perfectly reasonable and even useful interest that had helped saved their lives and the world several times already while dealing with Robotnik. And besides that, fixing or upgrading machines was their main source of income. But in the last several times Sonic fought against groups of armed robots, he found himself doing it all alone, at least until Tails flew in with the Tornado to shoot the last few out and to pick Sonic up.

He had been thankful for that, but at the same time, he couldn't help feeling that those skirmishes would have ended faster if his friend had been fighting them off by his side. Come to think of it, Tails really hadn't been seen flying or fighting with his namesakes for quite a while, outside of a few brief bursts of the former.

And the last time they had gone out on a run like old times was…how many months ago already? Sonic couldn't even remember. He found that alarming, to say the least.

Sonic was pulled back to reality as the alarm clock in the room started ringing. Tails nearby yawned audibly and swiftly got up from bed, feeling fully refreshed. "Morning, bud," the hedgehog greeted good-naturedly.

"Oh, hey, morning, Sonic," Tails said back with a smile. Then, apparently noticing something about Sonic, he added, "You got up earlier than me?"

"Actually, yeah," Sonic answered, sounding surprised. "You can tell?"

"Yeah, it's obvious from the way you're sitting up and the way your eyes look," Tails replied before chuckling a bit. "Sorry, it's just that I can't remember the last time that happened."

The teenage hedgehog was tempted to make a similar remark about Tails' recent physical activity or lack thereof, but he held back. The kid was still his best friend, and he wanted to discuss the matter cordially. Not here, though. "So, uh, what do ya think we should have for breakfast?"

* * *

><p>After a while, they decided on having some simple toast. Now in the dining room, Sonic noticed that the weather outside the window looked great. The sun had just come up, and there was wind that rustled the tree leaves and plants. Overall, it simply looked very inviting, at least to the blue hedgehog. "Looks great out there, doesn't it?" he decided to comment.<p>

The fox nodded. "It sure does," he agreed before taking another bite.

Good answer, just what he wanted to hear. Time to be more direct, then. "You think we could go for a run today?" he asked hopefully.

"Hmm…" Tails stayed silent for a moment to think about it. Then he replied, much to Sonic's dismay, "nah, no thanks. I got another idea about another upgrade I could add to the Tornado, something that can make the guns and missiles track better. Maybe I'll improve the laser's power usage too. And finally add that VTOL system. Oh yeah, there's also the Tornado II…so it might take the whole day."

Sonic had to do all he could to prevent his disappointment from showing. "Okay, sure," he said, trying to sound like he was completely cool with it.

It didn't work, though. He wasn't sure if it was his expression or voice, but Tails managed to pick up on his hidden feelings, somehow. "Sonic, anything you want to talk to me about?" he asked curiously.

The hedgehog almost sighed. Tails was so perceptive to certain things, yet not to others. Couldn't he see why? But since the fox had already noticed and asked about it, he couldn't turn back. "Well, there is something, to be honest," Sonic admitted reluctantly.

"Oh? What is it, then?" Tails sat up properly in his chair before continuing, "You can tell me anything. It's okay." The look in his bright blue eyes suggested he genuinely wanted to know.

"I don't know, bud, it's just that…" He began thinking of how to put it so that Tails wouldn't take it the wrong way. "…we haven't really gone out in a while, have we?"

Tails looked confused at the statement. "Huh? Sure, we do. We had to use the Tornado to stop Robotnik the last few times, and then-"

"I know, bud," Sonic interrupted, even though he normally didn't like doing so, "but that's not what I'm talking about."

"Then, what do you mean?"

"Well, Tails, remember what we used to do?" Sonic began as he began to recount his memories. "I mean, just blazing around near the speed of sound? Side by side, past all the trees and stuff? And maybe trashing Eggy's buttniks in the process? The old-fashioned way?"

"Sure, of course," Tails replied quickly and naturally, "it's just that I'm always having so many ideas about the Tornado, how to upgrade it and stuff, not to mention the customers' machines that I have to fix. And when Robotnik attacks, well, the Tornado does come in real handy, right? Besides, slapping bots with my tails starts to hurt after a while, you know."

Sonic had to pause at that long reply. Thinking over it, he saw that Tails did have some rather good points. And it was true that his own quills was naturally more suited to cutting and smashing through hard stuff than the fox's twin tails. The hedgehog still had his own arguments, though. "Got me there…but still, don't you think you go out and fly kinda rarely now? And anyway, it took me a while for my quills to get used to smashing bots too."

Now it was Tails' turn to be silent. After looking away in thought for a few seconds, he replied, "I guess I just haven't noticed it because of all that I've been doing. And I get what you mean, but if I have a way of defeating enemies without hurting myself, I should be using it, right?"

"True," Sonic acknowledged with nod, "but don'tcha think you're being a little too reliant on the plane these days? I mean, I love it too, and would never think of giving it up for anything. I've known it for even longer than I've known you. But you use it so much now that I can't even remember the last time you flew under your own power, that's all I'm saying."

"So, you're telling me to work out more?" Tails asked. He didn't sound defensive or offended, just inquisitive.

"Sort of, yeah, I guess you could say that, but not for that reason," Sonic replied. The fox was still as slim and small as ever despite his decreased physical activity and increased appetite. No, what kept Sonic concerned and awake this morning had something to do with their safety rather than health – _his_ safety. "I was just thinking, you know, what if something happened to the Tornado, or if we both had to go into cramped indoor areas where it had to stay outside. What would you do?"

Tails shrugged. "Well, I'd just follow you, right? And come on, Sonic, I'm not that forgetful, am I?"

"No, not saying that, bud," Sonic clarified, "you've got the best memory out of all the people I've ever seen. But shouldn't you kinda practice once in a while? Otherwise it'll be as if your tails are just for show and being a blanket, and that's not cool, man."

"They're not just a blanket, Sonic," Tails rebutted with a sigh, his face already turning red at the mention of his sleeping habit that thankfully nobody else knew about. "I assure you. You trust me, right?"

"I do, I do," Sonic made clear, "with all my life."

Before they could discuss it any further, a sudden beeping sound intruded the peaceful dining room. It was coming from Tails' minicomputer that he always wore with a strap on his left wrist, under the cuff of his glove. He checked it even though they already knew what the noise meant.

"It's Eggman, isn't it?" Sonic asked unnecessarily.

"Yep. This time he's attacking Central City. The report says it's only a few of his flying bots, though. The Tornado should be able to knock them all down flat in no time," Tails said confidently.

Again feeling slightly disappointed that the attack this time would again probably require them to be in the plane at all times, Sonic nevertheless nodded. "Sounds easy enough. Too easy, actually. But whatever, let's get out there and show it to him!"

* * *

><p>A few minutes later, they were already in the Tornado, soaring through the morning sky to the large city in the distance, with Tails in the pilot seat and Sonic standing outside, holding onto the right rear vertical stabilizer. The jet's ramjet engines, powered by the red Chaos Emerald, allowed it to reach Mach 3 and have virtually infinite range.<p>

Only ten minutes after taking off at maximum speed, the skyline of Central City was already visible, along with the outlines of Robotnik's hover units that they were familiar with. The radar showed that there were eight of them.

"Time to test the laser out," Sonic heard Tails announce through the earpiece he was now wearing. It was the most suitable weapon to use here due to the population density and the number of buildings placed close together, and the laser should hopefully be able to disintegrate the bots completely without any debris falling and causing damage. "Firing now!"

A thick yellow laser beam emerged from a port that had just opened at the front of the plane, which Tails had already slowed down considerably. The beam hit the first bot within a few nanoseconds, and as Tails hoped, it seemingly turned into nothing more than a few small pieces of dust. "Yes!"

Feeling even more confident now, he angled the plane in terms of yaw to the right slightly, allowing the laser, which was still on, to burn through two other bots with ease. "Wow, this is so easy!" Sonic remarked excitedly. It helped that the bots themselves didn't seem to be doing much at all other than being flying target practice.

Tails noticed that too, and that was when it occurred to him something was off. "Sonic, why are these bots so inactive?" he asked as he banked to the right to do a loop so that he could aim at the same spot again and hit the rest. "They seem quite old too. As if they were about to be decommissioned or something."

Wondering about this as well, Sonic kept looking in the same direction as the Tornado continued turning, when he saw something Tails didn't yet. "Uh, Tails, one of those bots are glowing."

"Huh?" Finally facing the bots again – Tails also made a mental note to shrink the plane's turning circle – he was now able to see what Sonic had seen first. One of the bots, which remained in the same position in the air, was emitting a blue glow from its apparently decrepit body, and it was getting brighter and brighter.

Before Tails could fire the laser again, the bot, controlled by Robotnik, began to finally unleash its own secret weapon first. The glow suddenly disappeared, and a powerful shockwave emerged from the bot at a very high speed. The duo yelped as it hit the Tornado, jerking it hard.

Immediately after that, the bots in front lost their power and started falling onto the city below. But Tails barely noticed that as he realized that the Tornado's own systems were going haywire. All of the meters and screens on his dashboard were flashing rapidly and fluctuating wildly. Outside, Sonic noticed, with growing nervousness, the engines making sputtering, dying sounds, before they stopped doing anything altogether. _Uh oh_.

"Sonic, it was an EMP!" a now panicking Tails tried to tell Sonic while trying to get the plane to move, only to realize that the EMP must have also knocked out communications between them. Meanwhile, all of the cockpit's systems finally shut down, never to be turned on again.

Still at an altitude of some five thousand feet, the Tornado, which had been the world's most advanced fighter jet a minute ago, was now its largest falling anvil.

Tails instantly knew that he had to get out of here and fly Sonic and himself to safety. Even though he could fly, he kept the ejection seats in the plane, as he couldn't expect himself to be its only pilot all the time. But it had never been used, and Tails had never faced or even considered getting struck by EMP before. All of this, combined with his panic, caused him to make a grave mistake as he pushed the eject lever. He only remembered exactly how the ejection procedure went right after he did it, which made him gasp and cover his mouth. _Sonic!_

To eject the seat, the canopy had to be opened, or in this case, jettisoned, as Tails felt there was a smaller chance of the occupants colliding with it that way. At this speed, the whole thing would naturally be flung backwards, and unfortunately, Sonic just happened to be in the way. The hedgehog was holding tightly onto the vertical stabilizer when the small explosive charges blew the canopy off and caused it to fly straight into his face, knocking him off the back of the plane with a loud cry of surprise and pain.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted in shock, but the hedgehog was already too far away to hear him, and the distance between them only grew larger as both he and the plane continued to fall towards different areas on the ground. Sonic had always been very resistant to falling damage, but could he really survive this?

The fox was so paralyzed by his mistake that he momentarily forgot about the danger he was in. When he finally turned to look forwards again, he saw that the Tornado was already going to hit the ground, somewhere deep within the city, but he couldn't see exactly where.

At the last second, Tails got to his senses and, instead of actually pushing the lever further to finally eject the seat, jumped out of the cockpit before spinning his namesakes to fly for the first time in months. His disuse of them, however, caused his flying to be less agile than it used to be. He was already low enough to be surrounded by the buildings rather than above them, and one was very nearby. Near enough for Tails to end up colliding with its exterior wall. Although his namesakes were still strong enough to dig into the concrete, his lack of control caused him to hit his head against it, which normally only happened if he angled his tails wrongly, since when he spun them, the diameter of the circle they formed was longer than his own body.

The pain was already making his vision blur. About the only good news was that he wasn't that high up from the ground now, and he promptly landed in a bunch of bushes next to the building, which softened his fall considerably. Nearby, there was a loud crash, followed by screeching metal noises as the Tornado disintegrated and skidded across some hard surface before it finally stopped. Then, everything fell silent.

Tails lay in the bushes, kept down by the worst headache he had ever felt. He did not pass out, though he really wished that he did. At least until he reminded himself that Sonic was out there somewhere, likely also hurt as well. And it was his best friend's fault.

The guilt was enough to make him change his mind. Gritting his teeth against the pain, the fox planted his gloved hands onto the grass and pushed himself up. Soon he found himself standing reasonably straight again, though the whole world around him was blurry and spinning.

He shook his head, which hurt so much it almost caused him to say some choice curse words that he'd never spoken before out loud, but fortunately it did manage to clear up his vision, so it was worth it. He grasped his burning forehead, causing him to hiss, before looking at his hand again. He was very lucky that there was no blood.

But that was the only thing luck provided him here. Finally looking around, he saw that all the buildings here appeared very old and rundown, abandoned even. The walls were covered with graffiti and many of the windows were smashed. _Great_, he thought dreadfully, _I'm in the slums_.

Then he turned to look ahead of him, and what he saw made him gasp. The Tornado was a complete wreck, with one of its wings broken off and the other severely damaged. Parts were strewn all over what had been a basketball court, and the main body itself was broken in several places, lying against the wall of a building. Instantly, his heart sank at the sight. He'd poured so much blood and sweat into this darling of his, and now it was a messy pile of scrap that probably couldn't ever be fixed.

Tails almost mourned the loss of his, or rather Sonic's, beloved plane until he finally remembered what happened earlier, which caused him to freeze again. _Sonic!_ He had to find him and check if he was okay. If he was, the hedgehog was probably going to be devastated by the fact that the plane wasn't, but at least it looked like the work Tails had done on the Tornado II would be more worth it.

The fox was about to take to the sky again and see where Sonic had roughly fallen from up there, but when he looked up, he froze again for a third time. Above him, the bright sky was now full of a large number of robots, probably a hundred of them at least, and these were not the outdated models Robotnik had used as bait earlier either, but much newer and more advanced ones, some of which even Sonic had trouble handling.

And many of them were landing down on the city, ready to take control of the whole place. Some of them landed only a few blocks away from where Tails was. Others, however, continued to stay in the air, presumably for the same reason he himself wanted to.

Tails first looked back at the Tornado wreckage. Then he glanced at his wrist device, which was now inactive and useless. He finally realized that, considering the height at which the EMP detonated, it must have disabled all technology that didn't use vacuum tubes within at least a one-hundred mile radius. Technology that he and many others used every single day.

Technology that he had become reliant on, like Sonic said.

He could not fly up there, lest the robots spotted him, and with his now rusty flying and fighting skills, which were interrelated, he might not last long at all against those things. He had to stay on the ground and sneak around the robots whenever and wherever he could. Unfortunately, he saw that this basketball court had only one exit leading to the alleyway. And the shadow of one of the robots was growing larger there.

Now fully comprehending the gravity of his situation, Miles 'Tails' Prower let out a soft whimper filled with fear and regret. _What am I going to do?_

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: Well, I don't know where I'm going with this, but I had to get this out somehow. It might be a challenge for me since I am forced to depict Tails in a way that does not fit how I normally picture him to directly address an issue that has been bugging me about his character in the games. Anyone else noticed how physically incapable or lazy he has apparently become?<strong>

**So, please, read and review, and I might just get more ideas and motivation for this.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: Sorry for taking six months to update this, I just needed time to figure out exactly how to continue it. Hope you also don't mind that I'll experiment with shorter chapters in this story. So, enjoy.**

**Chapter 2**

The robot's shadow continued to come nearer, and its soft hums were becoming more audible as well. For a moment, Tails just stood there, paralyzed by fear again. The only other sound he could hear was his own arrested breathing.

Then, finally, a part of his genius mind that hadn't been frozen up by his nervousness thought of the first best action to take, and practically screamed the idea at the kit: _hide!_

He obeyed immediately. Tails tore his eyes off where the robot would appear any moment now, and started scanning every possible direction and angle for something to hide behind. The problem was, a basketball court was designed to be a pretty open space – there really wasn't anything here that could obscure him, except maybe the grass he had landed in, but the robotics expert in him warned that the robot could possibly have infrared vision or something similar that could detect him anyway, rendering that cover useless.

No, he needed a solid barrier. As he located the only thing here that could serve that purpose, he quickly darted right over to it. He slid behind just as the robot finally appeared at the court exit.

The robot had a bulky, cuboid shape with its long side up, making it stand at about eight feet tall. It rolled into the area on a pair of treads, though it could also deploy thrusters and wings for flight, as it had done just now. Its visual sensors focused on the plane's crash site, which was fifty feet away, and got up close to it before performing its main objective.

SCANNING…

If the robot were able to feel confusion, now would be the time. It continued scanning for a minute or two, but it still could not detect any sign of this plane's pilot here, whether alive or dead. It did not notice the piece of metal debris behind it that was slowly moving, or rather inching, away towards the courtyard exit.

At least not until it suddenly scraped the tarmac ground with a short but distinctive screech.

As the bot swiveled around to check, Tails picked up the entire scrap of metal and hurled it at the machine out of desperation, before simply running for the exit just ten feet away. He was too worried about his life to chastise himself for his mistake or look back to check whether the debris would slow down the robot. Other than getting a scratch on its front surface, it was not affected.

This model of robot wasn't big enough to carry enough ammo for machine guns or rocket launchers, and so it was equipped with repulsors instead, powered by the same fuel cells used for its propulsion and computer systems. One of them activated, and the bot aimed it straight at the fox, needing only fifty hundred microseconds to acquire its target at this range.

Tails was incredibly lucky to have ducked around the corner to go right just as the first shot was fired. The blast smacked into the wall on his left and tore a large hole through it, and the fox kit couldn't stop himself from yelping in shock from the weapon's effects.

Realizing what could happen next, however, Tails arched his body forwards and sprinted even harder, and sure enough, the thin brick wall between him and the courtyard was blasted down as well, starting with the section behind him, with more follow-up shots that got closer and closer. He was still startled even though he'd expected it, but by then he'd at least already gotten clear of the wall by turning into another alley.

It was all a big mess, he thought. He continued running along the narrow and dark alleyways, not really caring which route he chose, as long as it didn't have more robots. He was afraid that was what he might find out on the streets.

As he did so, Tails found time to think of what went wrong. This was probably just the beginning of everything that was going to happen as a result of his lack of physical activity, the fox kit thought with a mix of fear and shame. If he had just trained himself a bit more like last time, he told himself, he might not have found that metal scrap – he was still sickened by how he had to use a piece of his beloved plane like that – so heavy, and would not have dropped it, therefore alerting the robot.

What else could happen next? The possibilities were endless, and not in a good way. If he were forced to fight any of these robots, could he even survive, much less win? What would happen if he didn't? Especially to the people who lived here? To Sonic?

_Sonic!_ His heart pounded badly upon remembering the hedgehog who could be in as much trouble as he was right now. Tails knew he had to locate him as soon as possible. But how could he even start? If only the device on his wrist weren't disabled, then he'd be able to use the 3D map on it to look for the tallest point in the city, or at least anything tall enough nearby, or possibly even use the radio to contact Sonic, or…

Tails shook his head again. No, he had to do it the old-fashioned way. _Or maybe it's the Sonic way? Heh_. Glancing behind to make sure the robot was not there, he looked upwards. The robots that had been in the sky earlier weren't there anymore. Had they landed? If so, what were they doing?

Knowing it wasn't possible to find out by staying in these narrow alleys, the fox began spinning his twin tails, and took to the air a second later to get on the roofs of the dilapidated five-story buildings that sandwiched him here. Once again, it occurred to him just how long it had been since he'd actually flown properly like this. He found his movements in midair to be sluggish and clumsy, even though this was supposed to be very simple. _I really need to get the hang of this again_, he thought, somewhat out of shame, mostly out of fear. Fear that his reduced agility had a real possibility of costing lives.

Landing on the roof, Tails looked up again, now having a much less narrow view of the sky. Again, no sign of the robots – their absence this time promptly caused him to frown.

But as he ran up to the street in front of the building, though, he discovered that there were no sign of people either. The shops below, he noticed, looked like they had been chaotically cleared just scant minutes ago, with overturned tables and chairs. Some of the doors were even still swinging. The cars below mostly had open doors – his first thought was that the drivers had to abandon their vehicles due to their disabled engines...or was it something else?

Immediately his frown turned into a frightful grimace. He could only think of one reason this could have happened, and it wasn't anything good.

Despite the possible doom these disappeared people could be facing, Tails still knew he had to focus on finding Sonic. Only then could he help others. Only then could he defeat the robots and rescue those civilians. He was loathe to do so, and very much wanted to just head directly into the action, but there were just too many doubts about his abilities now. It could very well do more harm than good.

What he had to do first was some reconnaissance. The only method Tails could think of doing it was risky, but he had no other choice. He spun his namesakes and rose into the air again, and kept on going. As he went higher, he began to notice how much effort it was taking, how it seemed like it was going to tire him out quite quickly, especially compared to his pre-hermit performance.

_No,_ he thought with an annoyed shake of his head, _it's just your laziness. Get over it._ Sure, he needed to practice his flying again when…if he had the chance to do so, but there was no way his stamina could have deteriorated that badly.

Eventually Tails reached a height of a hundred meters or so, which took a few seconds longer than he would have liked. He was getting frustrated at how everything he did in the air was now slower than before, but he had no time to complain about that now – that would, in and of itself, slow him down some more.

He finally glanced downward at Central City to see what was going on. Apart from his tails, he completely froze at what he observed. His earlier suspicions had been confirmed.

From his position, it looked like there were whole groups of civilians that were forced at gunpoint by the robots into large hover transports, to be hauled away as prisoners. There were a lot of civilians, which meant a lot of robots watching over them.

Then there was the final realization of all that he feared the most, to the point where he gasped out loud: was Sonic one of those prisoners?

There was really only one way to find out, was there? He checked the city blocks below more closely this time, trying to see where Sonic had fallen earlier and which direction was it from where Tails had crashed – the latter was easy to tell due to the black smoke still coming out from the slum neighborhood. There was a patch of green in the distance, likely a park, that seemed rather familiar…yes, that was it! It had to be!

Tired of being static (but fortunately not actually tired, at least not yet) the fox began heading towards his destination, which he kept his eyes on. Within a few seconds, he was already moving faster than he had gone in months without the Tornado. Much faster.

Despite the urgency of the situation, Tails couldn't help but welcome the feeling, that of the winds just gushing past him by his sides, the exhilaration, the blurry vision...it even brought back memories of him flying alongside Sonic as they both zoomed across the grassy landscape of Emerald Hill, as the fastest duo on the planet, caring for nothing else in the world…

And it was something that would never happen again if _I don't pay attention!_ Tails almost snapped at himself. He stopped his mind from drifting and put his focus back on the target area, but it was already a few seconds too late.

Tails was able to see the repulsor beam streaking right his way, but not soon enough to avoid it. He didn't even have time to react with fear – he saw it, and it struck him, with else nothing happening in the milliseconds in-between.

The good news was that repulsor beams weren't lasers, and gradually lost kinetic energy over long distances, making them potentially survivable. This one was obviously fired from the ground, which was still nearly a hundred meters below him.

The bad news was that it didn't mean they didn't hurt like a son of a bitch, and that, of course, the ground was still nearly a hundred meters below him. Tails cried out in pain and squeezed his eyes shut as he cradled his burning side, even as he knew that that was a mistake, but he couldn't fight his reflexes. No longer sustaining his flight due to the abrupt attack, it was now his whole body spinning towards the ground instead of only his tails.

Gritting his teeth and doing his best to ignore the burn, the fox re-opened his eyes, and saw with a gulp that he had descended dangerously quickly while he hadn't been looking. The park below was already too close for him to avoid crashing into it. Nevertheless Tails frantically started spinning his namesakes again as fast as they would allow, hoping he could at least soften his fall, just like what happened earlier when the Tornado crashed.

"Ngh!" He crashed onto the top of a grassy slope, having fortunately managed to slow his descent somewhat, and rolled down sideways, which really did not help the wound on his torso. It was hurting too much for him to be able to muster the attention to try and come to a stop.

Several seconds later he finally tumbled out onto a horizontal surface, and came to a slow, but welcome, stop on the concrete. Tails was groggy and in pain, and would have liked to just lie there for a while, to rest. But the thought of Sonic's wellbeing made sure he sat up almost right away.

The fox looked down at his body to examine the source of his agony. The left side of his torso was singed black, it and stung like crazy. Mercifully, he did not gather any more injuries on his bumpy way down here. It was painful, but at least it wasn't crippling.

Tails got to his feet while cringing, wanting to check where exactly he had landed. It was the park, alright, more specifically, a fenced square section of it, a garden with multiple flowerbeds and fountains. There was only one exit, a pair of closed steel gates on the opposite side.

For a moment, the kit was overcome by a wave of déjà vu. This was a just little too familiar.

He felt uncertain as he started walking towards the gates, but at the same time, there was nothing he could do here short of admiring the multicolored flowers, and there was no sign of anyone else here anyw-

_Wait a second!_ Tails turned around, having noticed something a bit…odd about the bed of blue flowers at the end of the yard which had been briefly in the corner of his eye, directly opposite the gates. He changed direction and headed there instead. After taking a few steps, he had a better view of the flowerbed, and…

"Sonic!" The hedgehog was indeed lying there, face down in the flowerbed filled with plants nearly the same color as that of his fur. He was completely motionless, and did not respond to Tails' cry.

Now the fox was filled with a chaotic mix of emotions – surprise that he had landed so close to where Sonic had, relief at having actually found him, worry that he might not be OK, fear of what he himself could do if he wasn't…there was more, he was getting overwhelmed, and the only way to get himself under control was to check on Sonic right now. Even just narrowing down the feelings he had would be a start.

Tails broke into a run. The yard wasn't so big; there were just a few more meters left. He just wanted to try and wake Sonic up, and hug him, even if he didn't hug back…but he never got the chance.

He'd been so focused on the hedgehog that he didn't notice the robot coming down from above until it finally slammed hard onto the tiled ground, right between Tails and Sonic, facing the former, who had come to a shocked stop at the interruption. He barely managed to avoid falling down backwards in horror.

As the bot deployed its treads and undeployed its thruster engines, Tails saw, chillingly, that there was a distinctive scratch mark on its frontal armor, and that its repulsor gun was already deployed and smoking. The same machine from the Tornado crash site that had undoubtedly tracked him down and fired at him earlier was now staring at the small fox with its cold, unmoving visual sensors.

_How could I have not noticed all of this?_ Tails could only think in cold sweat, once again feeling horribly incompetent. If only he had been more alert and careful, and, as much as he hated to admit it, not so single-mindedly focused on Sonic…

The gates behind him were too far away. The fences around him were too tall, the garden too wide open, and there was nothing here he could use as cover this time. And the only person that could effortlessly beat this thing was lying there unconscious.

That was the moment Tails decided that he had had _enough_.

He was tired of everything going wrong, tired of running away, tired of flying away, tired of being blindsided, tired of being careless, tried of feeling helpless…

It was time for something to go _right_ for a change.

As if on cue, Tails also found himself remembering all those times from before when Sonic had saved his life from danger during combat. Now, the roles were reversed. If he didn't help Sonic, nobody would. Then, just to add to this, there was also a line the hedgehog once quipped that came back to him: _if there's no way out, make one yourself!_

The fear on Tails' face slowly disappeared, to be replaced by a frown and a glare. "Okay, robot," he said in a tone of barely disguised fury that surprised even himself, "you want a fight? You got one. 'cause one way or another," the fox declared as bravely as possible while bending his knees and swinging his tails out in front of him, dropping into a combat stance he hadn't used for ages, "Sonic and I are getting out of here _alive!_"


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's Note: Again, my utmost apologies for taking so long to update this, this chapter came about almost spontaneously after six months of having no ideas. Enjoy.**

**Chapter 3**

The two fighters stood there in the garden, face to face, unmoving. The differences between them could not be starker. One was completely emotionless and built from the ground up to fight and destroy. The other was practically a fountain of feelings right now, and was not in the best shape for combat.

Every one of Tails' muscles was as taut as a guitar string, doing everything they could to stop him from trembling in terror. Ignoring the pain on his torso, he took in deep, powerful breaths, eyes focused on intently on his enemy. The fox was doing one thing he was sure he was at least still good at – analyzing robots for weak spots. Only this time, he could not point them out to Sonic for him.

His preliminary analysis was not looking very hopeful. The arms, which had repulsors and likely other weapons on them, were rather thick at the shoulders and only less so at the hands. Robotnik also appeared to have learned from past lessons, since the bot moved on tracks and jet thrusters – it did not have the same classic vulnerability that bipedal units did, the legs. The tracks were long and wide enough to give the bot a low center of gravity, meaning Tails had little chance of making it fall over. _I need to see it in action to know more_, he concluded. _A straight up glance isn't enough_.

The instant he finished his thoughts, which took a felt-way-longer-than-they-were five seconds, it suddenly seemed as if the bot had been able to read them, as the signal to begin to battle went off. In this case, the signal came in the form of both repulsors firing simultaneously.

The fox's muscles were so tense that he was able to leap to the side like a spring just as his senses caught the first sign of the attack happening – he couldn't tell if it was his ears or eyes that alerted him. A quarter of a second later, he managed to barely avoid getting struck by the repulsor bolts. His reflexes were still supernaturally quick compared to average folk, even if he hadn't used or honed them for so long.

At the same time his twin namesakes rapidly spinned up – this was something he really had to get used to doing again. He looked left to keep his eyes on the bot as he began to propel himself forwards, checking how fast it could turn around. The answer: very quickly. The robot spun counterclockwise while delivering follow-up shots at the fox trying to circle him – the fourth one hit.

Immediately pain coursed through his body, originating from the tip of one of his spinning tails, which stopped spinning as the fox again tumbled across the field of flowers screaming.

"Ahh! Ugh!" Once Tails came to a stop, lying on his abdomen, he quickly turned to check how bad his newest wound was. The normally white tip of his tail was blackened and charred, with a lot of the fur gone, but the tail was otherwise intact. Superficial pain, then - something he had to ignore, even if it was bad enough to make him grit his teeth, especially when combined with his torso wound. _Come on, adrenaline…_

His huge ears twitched, and out of the corner of his eye, another repulsor bolt was incoming, though at least the distance between him and the bot was greater now, giving Tails just slightly more time to dodge. Here the fox leapt ahead on all fours, much like the non-sapient version of his species, right before the blast consumed the flowers he was on and turned them to ash.

Now knowing that circling the robot was not an option, Tails planned to try something else. The robot could turn sideways rather quickly, but what about upwards?

His tails spun again, this time above him, and fortunately seemed to get up to speed faster now, much like in old times. He waited cautiously for the robot to fire again, now having a better idea as to how fast the bolts actually moved. It was the only way he could get the riming right due to the repuslor's rapid rate of fire. Without realizing it, he was actually ready now.

When the shot came, Tails' legs sprung him up high, and his namesakes ensured he would stay in the air without stopping. He wasn't moving vertically, though, but in an arc over the robot, intending on getting behind it, or at least seeing if it was possible.

He looked down while on his parabolic path, and noticed that he may found the weakness he was looking for. The robot was able to fire two more shots up at him, but by the time it tried to fire a third, the fox was already above the maximum elevation of its repulsors.

Tails finally had an attack plan since the fight began. Risky, but worth trying out nonetheless. Once he was directly above the bot, he let himself drop, but did not stop spinning his tails. Instead he had them face sideways while looking downwards, steadying his aim. He was going to use his tails as weapons again, specifically as buzzsaws, as a way of imitating Sonic's own move, something he hadn't done since he decided to do everything in the Tornado. To do this, he had to keep the edges of his spinning namesakes as sharp as possible.

The spinning wheel struck the robot's left shoulder, cutting it from top to bottom. Unfortunately, it did not go all the way. Like an old, dull sword, his tails simply hadn't been sharpened enough, and it was further hindered by the fact that one of its tips had been scorched just now. Instead of doing a clean cut and landing, Tails actually ended up getting stuck after sawing into it a few inches, his tails abruptly ceasing to spin as one of them got jammed at the fissure he'd created. _Damn it!_

Hurting again, the fox acted quickly and started pulling at the tail, which just happened to be the injured one, pushing against the robot's arm for support. The bot, apparently just as eager to get Tails off of itself, suddenly decided to help by spinning the damaged arm in an upright circle – the cut had not been deep enough to disconnect it.

Tails was helpless as he got spun around, the rotation growing more and more rapid, while he still struggled to pull his tail out. Eventually the centrifugal force got high enough that he was sent flying straight out, screaming all the way again.

He was lucky enough to land on another bed of flowers, cushioning the blow, but it was mitigated by his landing on his injured left side, causing a fresh wave of pain to flow over him. Joining in was his now even more wounded tail, which had suffered cuts as it had been forcefully pulled out of the fissure. Even though Tails knew he had to keep moving to avoid getting shot by the repulsor, he found that it hurt too much now – his wounds were slowing him down.

_Am I going to die?_ His breathing was arrested, his feelings a chaotic mix of worry and regret. The repulsor bolt was coming any second now…

Except it didn't. Confused and still lying on the ground, Tails turned around as fast as he could despite the pain to face the robot again. It was facing him back, its repulsors raised, but they were merely smoking, not firing. That was when it hit him: like older bullet-based firearms, the repulsors needed to cool down after continuous rapid fire, and it seemed they had just reached their limit.

But the repulsors were not its only weapons. They flipped upwards into its forearms, while at the same time its alternate weaponry, connected 180 degrees opposite the repulsors on the same pivot, flipped into view, revealing themselves to be a pair of whips. Electric whips. After uncoiling them, as if to demonstrate, the robot gave them a ferocious swing.

The sound of the resulting crack, complimented by the sizzle of the electric sparks, was enough to make all of Tails' fur stand on edge.

The robot edged closer, whips ready, this time intent on making them land on the fox. The sight made Tails jump up and then back up. Despite his fear, he tried really hard not to let it erupt into panic. He knew he had to do the same thing as he had earlier – to see what strengths and weaknesses this new weapon had.

_Without getting sliced, that is_.

The whips then came swinging horizontally, lashing out at Tails, who jumped backwards as his heart skipped a beat. Although his reflexes wanted to close his eyes instinctively, the fox forced himself to keep them open, as he had to see just how long the whips were, how far they could reach. It appeared to be about eight feet, the same height as the robot itself. Okay, so he had a chance. He just had to fly over it again and-

The robot unexpectedly gained a burst of speed as it zoomed forwards, and it swung its whips a second time. The shortened distance caused Tails to be the unfortunate victim of its effects as one of the whips struck his left shoulder.

"OW!" His right hand instantly reached up, pressing against the wound, the nasty combined result of a laceration and electric shock at the same time. The agony was beyond description. Even before he saw it, he knew he was already bleeding.

He was on the verge of collapsing, but at this point he had backed up far enough that something nearby came into his field of view, something that immediately vanquished all thoughts of falling over – Sonic. The hedgehog remained unconscious on the bed of blue flowers, but he might as well have been up and cheering for Tails, given the encouraging effect it had on the fox.

Then, to his horror, the robot suddenly changed course to face Sonic, its real target all along, and raised its whips, preparing to strike.

"No!" The sight of his best friend in danger and unable to defend himself now made Tails rush forwards rather than backwards, all the pain that had nearly downed him just a few seconds ago simply brushed aside like some mosquito bite. As the whips came down, the fox could think of only one way to defend Sonic. One utterly crazy one, but he had no other ideas, nor time to be picky about them.

Before the whips could hit Sonic and potentially flay his head open, Tails jumped and physically grabbed both of them, one in each hand. Despite his gloves, which were capable of withstanding abrasions and high temperatures, the burning sensation was incredible, and the shock that traveled through his entire body threatened to make his heart burst. Regardless, Tails' mind was on autopilot now, meaning nothing but the most incapacitating damage could stop him from carrying out his plan – and this was not.

Tails decided that the robot was not the only one with whips here. Still grabbing them tightly even though they could burn through his hands soon, the fox brought his namesakes out from behind, sharper than they ever had been, and cut the damn things with a mad slash. As they made contact, his tails stung from the shock as well, but it wasn't too much when added on top of the pain he already was in, and it lasted mercifully shortly.

This was not all he planned to do. Tails chucked the now disconnected whips aside, his gloves now burnt through, revealing his bloody palms. He jumped up into the air once more, tails propelling him, going from sword blades to normal to spinning helicopter blades within just a second, a new record for him. The robot was undoubtedly going to switch back to its repulsors which had likely cooled down by now. The fox was not giving it that chance.

Tails flew in a half-parabolic arc over the robot before dropping and changing the direction of his spinning, sharpened namesakes again. _This_ time, he was going to ensure a clean cut. He _knew_ it.

Heading for the same damaged arm, Tails was finally able to sever the entire appendage completely, almost as smoothly as a knife on butter. And he did not even stop moving to congratulate himself – the moment his feet and the robotic arm touched the ground, the fox swung his personal buzzsaw horizontally, halfway across the robot's treads, before taking a few quick steps over, jumping, and then swiping upwards vertically again, through the other shoulder. Flying again, Tails landed what he hoped was the final blow – severing the optical sensors on top of its body, its 'head', out of a sense of completion and frustrated fury.

Tails then dropped down in front of the robot, facing it once more, eyes narrowed and namesakes still spinning and cutting through the air. At first, nothing happened. Then the robot seemed to finally register that it had just been sawed apart. The entire machine promptly collapsed, its other arm and head landing onto the stone tiles while the body fell backwards off its treads. After much clattering and grinding, the entire garden was silent once more.

David had finally felled Goliath.

Recognizing that he had indeed defeated the mechanical menace, Miles 'Tails' Prower stopped spinning his twin rear appendages, and then stopped standing altogether. He fell next, straight onto the grass, face down. With the danger eliminated, the adrenaline had stopped pumping, and the pain from all of his wounds had come back to clasp him in a tight vice from which he couldn't break free.

He felt his consciousness began to slip away, and no will to fight it from happening. Despite the agony and exhaustion, he could at last feel relief at how he'd managed to defend Sonic. Without tools. Without gadgets. Without the Tornado. Just he, his tails and his quick thinking…

His ever-sensitive ears picked up a distant rumble. The familiarity of the sound kept him awake, and his relief began draining away. Suddenly passing out didn't seem like such a good idea. _No_, he pleaded silently. _Please_…

But a slow glance to the side confirmed his worst fears. There were now not one, but three additional robots of the same type that had arrived at the scene via jet thrusters. Even with his darkening vision, he could see that they were all looking at him.

As they deployed their weapons, the fox felt oddly calm. He did not find himself yelping or scrambling away in panic – he wouldn't have even if he had the energy. At least he'd die having proven that he wasn't as physically helpless as he'd appeared to be to the world, especially to Sonic…

His supposed last thoughts were interrupted by yet another very familiar sound – this one was most welcome. He heard the noise of metal being smashed, and when the fox looked back up to check, there were big holes through each and every robot. There was only one person he knew that could do that.

Out from behind the furthest robot that proceeded to collapse, a familiar blue blur came around, stopping abruptly before Tails. "Tails!" Sonic the Hedgehog called out in surprise, his emerald eyes overflowing with worry. "Tails, you okay?"


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Tails, who only a few seconds ago wanted nothing more than to pass out, found himself sitting up straight again at the sight of his brother who was doing the same thing all of a sudden, his fatigue miraculously gone. "S…Sonic?" he called out, weak but clearly surprised, "you got up…"

"Yeah," the hedgehog said with an assuring nod, "just in time, too, before those bots almost got you. I still have the worst headache ever though," he continued as he gripped his forehead tightly with a cringe.

"Me too, actually. Thanks," the fox said, trying to smile, but the pain in his hands, shoulder and tail caused him to wince again. "Ah…"

"Tails, what happened to you?" Sonic asked, eyes level with him again, both worried and curious. Before he could ask if Tails was okay again, however, he suddenly realized something, and took note of one of the downed bots nearby. The one that had been quartered rather than having a huge hole punched through its body. It took a moment for him to realize what could have caused that damage, and turned back to the fox again while blinking. "Wait…you…did that?" He pointed to the same heap of metal as he asked.

"I…uh, yeah," Tails replied, blushing. "You were unconscious, and it…it almost tried to kill you. I had to stop it no matter what."

Sonic the Hedgehog was stunned, to say the least, albeit in a positive way. Tails had done exactly what he had just this morning worried the vulpine could no longer do to save his life. Maybe he still had it after all? "Tails, I…you…" The words he wanted, or needed, were not coming to him for whatever reason, and so there was only one thing he could think of doing. "C'mere," he muttered while pulling the boy in for a tight embrace, wrapping his hands around his small body. "Thanks, bud. Y…you saved me."

Tails returned the hug despite his hurting palms. "No, Sonic," he said, suddenly sounding upset, "I'm sorry. I'm the one…I'm the one who knocked you out in the first place by trying to eject from the plane while you were in the way."

"Hey, it's okay," Sonic instinctively replied, before noticing finally Tails' burnt gloves as he pulled his hands back, as well as the charred mess on his left shoulder, making the hedgehog go wide-eyed. "Wait, are you okay?"

The fox took a good look at his hands, at what they'd endured. His gloves were pretty much toast, with the palms and fingers exposed, revealing the stinging burn marks that ran along them parallel to his extended thumbs. Tails moved his fingers to test the extent of the damage, and even though it was painful, they were still attached and functional, at least. His left arm was more problematic, though, as he found it difficult to move it away from his torso without his shoulder feeling like it was being scorched all over again – he was going to have to keep it still. "I'm fine enough," he concluded, biting his lip, "nothing a few bandages can't fix."

"You sure?" It was clear he was still skeptical.

A nod. Since they were now both okay, relatively speaking, Tails began to be reminded of the reason they had both come in the first place, as he remembered what he saw prior to his unplanned but ultimately fortuitous landing here. "Sonic, enough about us. We gotta go save those people."

Hearing that, Sonic quickly turned to look in the general direction of the city, then back, his eyes revealing he was back in business mode. "What's going on now?"

"I saw people being pushed into hovering passenger crafts at gunpoint," Tails reported, his relief at Sonic being okay replaced by worry that those other people who weren't. "They're being taken prisoner by the hundreds. We gotta free them, Sonic!"

"Where's it happening?"

"The city square, on the hill," the fox answered as he began to get back onto his feet. He could only use one hand push himself up from the grass, and he wobbled and wavered badly in the process, but soon he was standing again. "Come on!"

Sonic did not take his eyes off his injured but feisty friend. "Tails, you sure you can do this?"

"I…I have to try," he replied with a childish mix of uncertainty and determination. "We have to stay together anyway, Sonic. We can't afford to be far apart."

A few seconds of silent consideration later, Sonic nodded. "Good point. But can you fly and attack and stuff?"

_Good question_, Tails thought but didn't feel like saying, as he didn't want to sound more uncertain than he already had. He spun the twin appendages, immediately wincing as he felt the sting coming from the tip of the burnt one, but found that it wasn't enough to stop him, not when there was so much as stake. Soon he was hovering off the ground several feet, the grass and flowers swaying wildly in the downwash. Then, he did a quick spinning motion through the air toward an average-sized tree nearby. It proceeded to collapse after he passed through, having gotten a clean horizontal cut at roughly half height.

He then turned back around to face Sonic, still flying. "Think that answers that," he said, now sounding much surer, the lights in his eyes that had dimmed earlier now all fired up again, "let's not waste time, come on!"

While still feeling unsure about Tails' claims, Sonic nevertheless nodded and started to move out – he did not want to waste time bickering over something the fox would undoubtedly disagree with while people were in danger. He did agree that they would be safer and stronger together regardless.

They moved side by side out of the garden, making their way toward the streets in the distance, which looked eerily quiet and inactive, with many abandoned cars next to abandoned buildings and nobody around them – this area probably had been cleared even before Tails had found Sonic. Robotnik had been acting fast, and they had to catch up.

Neither of them said anything on the way to the square, at least not out loud. Without slowing down, Sonic stole a small glance at Tails and noticed that the flying fox was keeping up surprisingly well despite the state he was in and having only started doing this again for the first time in forever. His right hand clutched his shoulder wound the entire time, which did not look like it was hurting less than it did earlier, though you couldn't tell from the fox's steely gaze and his clenched teeth.

_Am I wrong about him?_ Sonic couldn't help but think as he leapt over an overturned baby carriage. Tails, with the way he had fought and was flying now, almost did not look like he had ever been out of practice, and the hedgehog had begun to feel slightly guilty for doubting him, even though it hadn't actually done anything.

He was about to consider apologizing after this was all over, before 'this' finally was in their sight, far ahead. On the stone floor in the center of the large square, which was on a small grassy hill, groups of civilians, both adults and children, were being forcibly pushed up the entrance ramps of three hover transports, apparently the last ones in the area, by similar eight-foot-tall robots they'd encountered in the garden. There were ten of them in total, and conveniently, none of them seemed to have noticed the duo's arrival. "Tails, you remember what to do in this kind of thing?" Sonic asked without slowing down, intending on keeping his momentum high.

"Yeah!" Tails replied confidently through the wind gushing between them. Of course he could remember how they used to go zipping around and trashing bots together. Whether he could actually carry it out just as smoothly as he as last time was another, but considering his performance earlier, he was willing to bet he had a chance. Not that he had a choice.

Fifty meters left. They were going up the hill's slope now. Despite the situation, Sonic broke out into a smile at the answer. There was really no more doubt that he had no more doubts about his friend now. "Alright, just be careful, okay?"

Forty meters. Tails nodded impatiently. "I don't hit robots with my shoulders, Sonic. I know what to do. I'm taking the right. Ready?"

Thirty meters. "Gotcha. We break in three…"

Twenty-five meters. "…two…"

Twenty meters. "…one…"

Fifteen meters. "Now! Good luck bud!"

And it began. Sonic and Tails veered left and right respectively, the former throwing himself as a spiky cannonball towards the center mass of the leftmost bot with perfected precision. The unit was alerted to face the incoming threat, but was only able to turn halfway before being messily smashed into half, dropping out debris, electronics and sparks. Tails, on the other hand, knowing he did not have the raw strength to punch through the armor like Sonic, took a different approach as he sped toward his target by aiming at its main weak spot, their optics sensors mounted on top. He curled up and spun toward them the same way as Sonic, except he planned for a blunt attack rather than a sharp one. His spinning namesakes pounded onto the bot's head like hammers on a turbine, wrecking it easily, before he bounced off and headed for the next one.

The square was surrounded by a few steel lampposts, which Sonic used to his advantage. After going through the first bot, he uncurled, bounced off another towards the nearest lamppost, touched it with his feet, quickly confirmed his new target's location, jumped off, and rolled up again, all within less than two seconds, minimal loss of momentum, and without getting hit by the many repulsors bolts zapping past him, consistently half a second too late.

It turned to be a lot easier than he expected, which surprised him. These things used to give him a lot of trouble. Within seconds he'd gone through three of them, and after crashing through the second-last one, he rebounded off the lamppost, eyes locked onto his only remaining foe, and-

"AH!" The piercing scream coming from nearby shattered his laser-like focus, and was loud and alarming enough that even he couldn't help instinctively switch his gaze from the bot to Tails while still flying towards the former. As a result, he ended up slamming against the bot's armored front head-on without going into his spinning form, before he could even process what had happened to the fox.

Sonic fell backwards onto the ground, his quills cushioning him against the limestone, which he was glad for as getting his face flattened hurt enough. Knowing he couldn't afford to keep still, he kicked up and leapt back onto his feet, ignoring the last bot next to him and running in the direction the scream had come from while checking exactly what had occurred to Tails.

Immediately he found himself inhaling sharply at the sight he was racing towards, his observations happening in slow motion. While Sonic had been almost effortlessly trashing the bots, Tails had not been so successful. Three of the bots were disabled, not to say destroyed, with their optics and weapons lying on the floor in pieces, but the remaining two had managed to score a shot on the already wounded kit that was on the floor, grabbing yet another fresh injury on one of his tails while shrieking horribly. Both bots had their repulsors out, emitting an ominous charging noise, ready to emit something much deadlier. Unfortunately, they were just far away enough that Sonic knew he could not reach and spindash them before they opened fire.

He could, however, reach Tails.

In that split second, Sonic took the only possible course of action left to him, regretting that he had ever taken his eyes off of his buddy in the first place, or even thinking that he was fit enough to fight. _Sorry bud_, he thought right before the inevitable happened, _but I just gotta keep watching over ya, do I?_

Tails heard the repulsors going off, while right at the same time he found himself getting suddenly knocked aside. He happened to be at the edge of the square and the hill it was on, and soon he and Sonic were tumbling down the grassy slope sideways. Throughout the entire ordeal since the last blast hit his tail, he was screaming madly.

Only by the time they rolled to a stop below, near the street, did the fox stop. He was completely out of breath, and his throat was probably in just as bad a shape as his exterior body. Above him, the afternoon sun was bearing down on the city oppressively, which was quickly and briefly obscured by certain blocky shapes flying past and rising into the air, emanating loud jet whines. The transports and their escort robots were getting out of here, unopposed.

After ten solid seconds of lying in pain, confusion and denial, the truth came down onto Tails so hard that a repulsor bolt would have hurt less. He had failed.

His eyes welling up, the kit struggled to turn over to the blue bundle of spikes lying nearby. "S…Sonic…" he called out as audibly as he could, which wasn't easy considering the state of his voice box. His voice came out raspy and scratchy. And as he soon found out, he needn't have bothered.

Sonic was unconscious once again, and this time, he was probably not waking up anytime soon. The repulsors had hit him right in the abdomen and forehead, and the results were ghastly to see. He was bleeding badly from the one below, which was like a gunshot wound without the bullet and surrounded by a black ring of fire, making it clear it had come from an energy weapon. His head had been hit perpendicularly rather than straight on, but even so, it was scorched enough that Tails immediately averted his eyes from it, fearful that he would be able to see his flesh, his skull or even his brain if he kept looking at it.

He looked at his own battered body, recounting all of the areas he had been hit in: his hands, shoulder, torso, and both tails. How could he ever have had a chance? Taking on one bot while he was more or less healthy had been difficult enough with his diminished skills. Taking on five with all those combined injuries…no surprise that it had led to this then. Overestimation of his degraded fighting abilities, overconfidence, and an over-eagerness to help others in trouble and prove himself to Sonic. A total disaster. It was a sight that could be found next to the word 'failure' in the dictionary.

No longer having enough energy to say another word, Miles 'Tails' Prower simply sat over the limp form of Sonic the Hedgehog, sobbing and trembling harshly, utterly defeated and humiliated.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Fortunately for the citizens of Central City – the ones that weren't abducted by Robotnik, at least – the nearby city of Station Square had reacted quickly in helping out their neighbors however they could. Within a day, citizens of CC were receiving aid in every area affected by the EMP blast, including restoring power, maintaining law and order, as well providing shelter and medical assistance.

Tails knew he didn't need the shelter as his home was sufficiently far away from the EMP attack to be unaffected, but the health care he welcomed, not just for himself but for the knocked out hedgehog. They had been airlifted into Station Square General Hospital shortly after the robots and transports had flown off. After arriving, the duo had been among the first to be attended to, supposedly because of the extent of their injuries, especially Sonic's, but Tails couldn't help but wonder if it was really because of who they were. Not that he complained.

The fox was waiting outside the emergency room on a wooden bench, completely motionless and expressionless, staring blankly straight ahead at the wall full of clichéd medical posters which were constantly getting obscured by doctors, nurses and patients hurrying in both directions, most of whom ignored him. He didn't need any more attention anyway, nor did he desire any, as his wounds had already been fixed up. The ones outside, at least.

His torso, forehead, shoulder, both tails and ungloved hands were all disinfected and bandaged, and his left arm was in a sling. Despite the way he looked, the doctor had told him he'd been lucky - none of them were life-threatening, although he would require a brief stay in the hospital for observation.

While Tails' injuries had been a case of quantity over quality, with Sonic it was pretty much the opposite. Which was why he was behind those double doors now.

_And I put him there_.

Tails had not spoken a single word since coming to the hospital several hours ago, and even in his mind he hadn't been able to think in any long sentences. His bloodshot eyes had also barely moved after he stopped crying. Everything he had experienced this afternoon had wiped his cognition and spirit away like some powerful detergent, leaving him a numb, hollow shell – an emergency mechanism that kept him from all of the powerful emotions he was supposed to feel now, though it was unclear how long it could hold.

The doors finally swung open, and as it was the only sound Tails had been paying attention to wait for, he turned his head toward the doctor that came out. Slowly. Worrisomely. Agonizingly.

"Ah, you're here," the doctor, a bear, said after noticing the fox and his unnervingly empty gaze, which he ignored, "I have some good news and bad news about Sonic."

The fox's heart began pounding faster. He was too fearful to choose which one he wanted to hear first. He remained silent, letting the doctor do it for him.

"Well, you know how we doctors choose to give it," he remarked, "so, the good news is that we managed to get the damage to his gut under control. It has nasty burn marks on both the entry and exit wounds, but otherwise it's surprisingly similar to a gunshot, only with no gunpowder – keep in mind that we have little experience with wounds caused by energy weapons. He'll have a few problems with his spleen, for sure, but as long as he gets the standard treatment for that one, it'll be fine."

Tails gulped and squeezed his eyes shut, bracing himself for the second half of the doctor's report.

"The bad news," he continued with a sigh, "is with his head. Putting the burns aside, the impact from the laser seems to have been heavy, almost like getting hit with a solid, dense rock. It's caused a hemorrhage within his skull. We're going to have to keep him here to control his intracranial pressure, or his brain could literally be squeezed out of his head through his wound. I should let you know too that it's put him into a coma…and we honestly can't say how long he'll be out."

His feelings were slamming against the cage they'd been thrown into, threatening to burst out, but Tails somehow remained standing still, expressing little, if anything at all, at what he'd just heard.

"I understand if you're still in shock over your ordeal," the doctor then said, sounding less stiff and more sympathetic now, "you don't have to say anything. I'll take you to him if you want. All you need to do is nod."

They were in Sonic's ward, which was shared with Tails, after a few minutes of walking. On his bed, the hedgehog lay still, lifeless, eyes closed, his body connected to all manner of medical instruments nearby including an electrocardiogram that was beeping slowly, an IV drip and an oxygen tank.

Instantly Tails regretted ever having agreed to come to this room. The sight of his normally energetic friend, who was filled to the brim with life, vigor, rapid movements and snappy talk, lying half-dead like that…it made him tremble, like an earthquake that affected only him. He realized he could actually taste the disgust, the repulsiveness of it.

For the first time since trying to fight the bots back in Central City, the fox was moving quickly again as he suddenly bolted back out the door and down the corridor, shoving aside several stunned passers-by and ignoring the resulting pain on his torso. He made a mad dash for the room ahead, its wooden door marked by the small blue icon of a male.

Inside, while still running, Tails dropped to his knees and slid up to the toilet in one of the open cubicles, and promptly vomited, ejecting out what little he ate during breakfast just hours before.

The same breakfast at which Sonic had told him about his negligence of his physical shape and fighting ability. Something which he suspected Sonic had wanted to tell him for a long time, but hadn't because of how useful his tech skills had been…until right before the moment, the _one day_ that they weren't. The irony of the timing, almost as bitter as the aftertaste of what used to be food inside his mouth, was pushing him to tears again.

Later on, he'd been coaxed by the doctor and nurses to go back to his bed, which he did without comment or resistance. He planned to just fall asleep and leave further angsting until after he woke up, only to find out that fate wasn't done humiliating him.

The TV set in the ward happened to be showing the news channel, which seemed innocuous enough, but nobody was aware of the consequences it would bring about. "Central City remains mostly powered down hours after the EMP attack, with no functional cars, transportation, cell phones or even lights," the human female reporter said tersely, "eyewitnesses say that Robotnik's hover transports and robots had abducted a large number of civilians, possibly in the hundreds, before escaping. Scans performed by government satellites have shown that the crafts were seen flying back to the notorious mad scientist's largest known stronghold located near the North Pole, the heavily defended base that the military had unsuccessfully attempted to assault nine months ago. His motives for the abductions so far are still a mystery."

"The global community has expressed shock that famed hero Sonic the Hedgehog and his friend Miles 'Tails' Prower had failed to stop the abductions, having been badly injured while trying to do so. Reports from the hospital state that although Tails will see a full recovery, Sonic has fallen into a coma due to a severe head injury. It is currently unknown when, or if, he will awaken."

As Tails listened to the cold facts being reported, he began to find it harder and harder to breathe. He turned slowly over to look at Sonic, wondering if he could hear the TV too. If he couldn't, it would be lucky of him.

"As Sonic and Tails remain unavailable for comment during their stay in the hospital, it is still unclear why their rescue attempt was unsuccessful, although a few eyewitnesses have stated that Sonic was wounded while saving Tails' life from a robot's attack."

His eyes grew wide. There were people that had seen their battle in the city square? What else was this woman going to report?

"Outside of Central City, some have expressed concern that Tails, who has not been seen flying or fighting alongside Sonic for over a year, may had been more of a liability than an asset during this attack, as the EMP disabled all technology in the area, including Tails' own, blunting an advantage he normally has."

Panicking now, Tails scrambled to the small tables on the left and right sides of his bed for the remote control to turn the TV off, but, to his horror, couldn't find it.

"On the internet, some harsher comments have emerged," the reporter continued neutrally, "with a number of internet users directly blaming Tails for Sonic's current condition due to being out of practice compared to the hedgehog."

_Where's the goddamn remote?!_

"More significantly, however, a government spokesman has stated that Sonic and Tails' defeat in this attack has resulted in the loss of the red Chaos Emerald, known to be conditionally allowed to the duo as a result of their past heroic actions. However, in light of their failure to protect the Emerald and prevent citizens from harm, there are rumors that the government may reconsider their privileged access to the remaining Emeralds-"

Somehow, Tails' acute hearing, afforded to him by his huge ears and something that was normally very useful, was just about the last thing he wished he had right now. With every word from the news report digging into him like daggers no matter how hard he tried to block it out, all the barriers around his emotions finally well and truly crumbled.

He screamed.

Ferociously Tails tossed the blanket off of him like it were some disease, clumsily put on his shoes with his good, or rather, less bad hand, and dashed out of the room a second time. Only now he wasn't heading for the bathroom.

"Hey, what the-" The doctor that he'd met earlier noticed the fox rushing past him, entering the stairwell. "Tails! Where are you going? Come back!"

The ground floor was only two stories below, making it easier to reach the front entrance, but there was something else in the way that Tails had forgotten to expect as he came off the last step.

In the main lobby, groups of paparazzi, which hospital security was sensibly forbidding from entering Sonic and Tails' ward upstairs, noticed him barreling straight toward in their direction, instantly multiplying their excitement. "Excuse me, Tails!" many of them asked at once as they got up close to and surrounded him while snapping photos and failing to notice he was crying, "they are saying that you failed to save those people in Central City and got Sonic into a coma because you haven't been training, what do you say to that-"

"Get out of the way! Just go! Get lost!" Tails shouted in a damaged, high-pitched voice as he shoved them aside and darted through them, fortunately made easier by his small size. After clearing the entire crowd and reaching the outside, the fox spun his namesakes, not caring that they were still bandaged and healing, and took off into the dusky evening sky. It hurt like hell to do so, but being told about his failures again who cared more about their ratings than his feelings was a hundred times worse. Anything was better than being here. _Anything_.

_How had it come to this?_ He wondered as he flew, even more clumsily and unevenly than usual due to the poor shape of his tails and his tears blurring everything, away from the flashing cameras and blunt, uncaring questions. Of course, even before the thought passed his mind, it was already clear to him the answer was similarly blunt and uncaring. _Because of _you.

Tails knew he had to get away from the hospital because everything there reminded him of that fact. The people, the TV, the half-dead hedgehog himself…he had to go someplace he believed that wouldn't happen. At least just for a little while. Maybe after that he could calm down and figure out his next step…

He had to get back to his workshop, in the outskirts of the city just a few miles away.

The fox landed like a shot-up cargo plane making an emergency touchdown before his own front door. The instant his feet touched the grass, he collapsed and rolled forwards, sustained by the momentum from his shaky flight. His tails was stinging and aching like crazy, though it was still nothing compared to how his heart was. Still in a frenzy, Tails stumbled back up and approached the entrance, punching in the number code on the nearby keypad. The door slid open, and he slid in, hoping he could at least start _trying_ to be at ease, to forget, to not think about any of it.

He thought that home would be the best place to do so. But he was wrong.

Navigating through the darkness of the messy living room, Tails found his way to his own equally messy bedroom, and flipped the light switch on, intending to just drop down onto his bed like a rock and shut himself off.

Instead, he found himself standing still and staring at his own crib, as well as the adjacent hangar behind its open door. At its contents.

The bright lights revealed a bedroom that obviously belonged to a busy intellectual, one with engineering notes, books, and blueprints scattered everywhere, on the floor, desk and bed. Records of gadgets and gizmos that the owner had planned to build, was building, and had already built, the latter two of which were everywhere here as well. Not to mention the advanced fighter jet and its accompanying fuel, spare parts, and munitions in the other room. All clearly the work of a genius.

On any other day before this, Miles 'Tails' Prower would have claimed to be this person. Right now, however, he found all this tech, which he had been working on for nearly his whole life, entirely alien to him. Like he didn't belong here. Or rather, like none of this belonged to him.

He'd come here to escape from the reminders of his mistakes, only to run head right into them again, the biggest one of all, in fact. And they were crashing back into him _hard_.

…_d__on't you think you go out and fly kinda rarely now?_

…_don'tcha think you're being a little too reliant on the plane these days?_

_I was just thinking, you know, what if something happened to the Tornado…what would you do?_

_Tails, you sure you can do this?...can you fly and attack and stuff?_

…_a number of internet users directly blaming Tails for Sonic's current condition due to being out of practice compared to the hedgehog…_

… _you failed to save those people in Central City and got Sonic into a coma because you haven't been training…_

"No, goddamn it, no!"

His bandaged hands first clutched his temples as he screamed again, so tightly that they almost threatened to crush his head in, before his swelled up rage commanded him to direct that damage to something else. The next thing he knew, he was picking up a bunch of his papers, documentations of inventions that were worth millions of dollars and could revolutionize industries…

…and ripping them apart like so much scrap. First into two pieces, then four, then eight, before proceeding to do the same for all the others in the room. Soon the room was covered in torn flakes of paper, scattered and dispersed enough to the point where it was no longer possible to reassemble them even if he wanted to. And he wasn't done yet.

Next to feel his wrath were the inventions themselves, electronic devices which he didn't even recognize anymore, nor did he want to. One by one, he picked them up and hurled them against the wall with a force he'd never exerted before, smashing each of them into cracked bits of plastic, circuitry, and wires. The loud crunch he heard with each device destroyed only fed his appetite to keep doing so. All this tech that he'd worked on for years, and not in one way had they helped to prevent the events of today, nor could they have. Useless junk, all of it! No point making anything electronic anymore, he thought, if Robotnik could disable anything with the push of a button!

Running out of expensive gizmos to wreck, Tails stormed out into the hangar, crushing debris in the process, and skid to a stop, breathing sharply. His narrowed eyes were set on the largest gizmo of all in this place, the one that had taken up a solid nine months to work on, the one that was to have been his greatest accomplishment – the Tornado II.

Remembering that the fighter jet had extra advanced armor that gave it better resistance to gunfire and foreign object damage, he turned to something else that would achieve the last thing he needed to do here. Behind the plane sat several missiles, bombs, and fuel tanks, the latter meant to be used when the Chaos Emerald wasn't. But Tails now had a different purpose for it in mind, and it wasn't to replace the Emerald that he no longer had.

Grabbing a bucket and power drill from one of the work tables, the fox went up to one of the tanks and drilled it near the bottom. The fluid began spraying out, and Tails moved aside to avoid any getting on his person, before placing the bucket right in its path to fill it up.

Five minutes later, nearly every surface inside the house, from the Tornado II to the bathroom was covered in jet fuel. Tails had walked back outside, now holding a powerful blowtorch and staring at the splotch of fuel on the grass before him that trailed back into the house through the entrance.

Tails was supposedly fully ready to light the match and throwing it, but something was stopping him, he realized. Something, to his displeasure, was making him hesitate. It took him a moment to figure out that it was Sonic. Not the hedgehog himself, of course, but cursed, halting thoughts of him.

_What would Sonic think of you doing this?_

If he did this, Sonic, if he woke up, would find himself with no more place to stay, no money left to use, and no more friend to return to or comfort. Even if Tails himself no longer desired them, the hedgehog still would.

Then he remembered how Sonic had allowed him to get back into a fight with dangerous robots. Considering the fox's state at the time, the sensible thing for Sonic to do would have been to restrain him and convince him that he was in no shape to jump back into physical combat, no matter how much effort it took. Sonic could have taken on all those bots and saved those people himself!

But he allowed it to happen anyway.

And with that, Tails' concern towards his comatose best friend withered away, disappearing like the sun just did into the horizon behind him, the main difference being he was sure the former wasn't coming back.

"You let this happen too, Sonic," Tails remarked softly but bitterly, and took in a deep breath.

It was time.

Time to make up for his own mistakes, to leave this shortsighted chapter of his life behind for good. Gripping the blowtorch tightly and painfully, Tails activated the tool and set its nozzle on the wet patch in front of him.

Thirty seconds later, the darkness of the woods was banished by the resulting fire, which immediately blazed along the fuel trail into the house and consumed all that it could reach, which was almost everything. Including the bombs, missiles and fuel tanks in the hangar, one of which was still leaking. Like it knew where to go, the flame raced right up to the drilled hole, and there was ignition.

He was not looking at his and Sonic's home for the last three years as it went up in a loud, spectacular fireball, made larger by the exploding munitions, obliterating the building entirely. He was already running deeper into the woods, eyes kept ahead on the dark, dusty path that led to a new life he'd planned for himself.

As he ran, he cradled his two tails in front of him. The bandages on them had been ripped off during his flight earlier, revealing the normally fluffy appendages to be weak and frail from his recent injuries, and more importantly, from his shameful neglect of them. Something he now promised to fix.

Miles 'Tails' Prower hugged that which gave him his nickname tightly, tears streaming yet again. They were the only things that mattered now, not planes or gadgets. With all the technology that had once taken up all of his time destroyed, he would never be distracted again. He vowed to strengthen his tails, to make them define him as a hero, to make them the very essence of his person once more.

And there was only one guy who could help him achieve it.

**Author's Note: I'm a bit worried that I may have gone overboard with the angst in this chapter. Please review and tell me what you think! Thanks!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay. Again. College, you know? This one's shorter than usual, but hopefully it works.**

**Chapter 6**

Knuckles was sitting at the spot he most commonly sat at, next to the Master Emerald on top of the altar on Angel Island. He'd just eaten dinner and checked that the floating island was safe and free of intruders, and could afford to rest for a while.

Now idle, his thoughts drifted to that of Sonic and Tails as he watched the now risen moon. He hadn't heard from them for a while. The island had no communications systems with the rest of the world that would let them communicate with Knuckles or vice versa, nor did he feel it was necessary. If there was a problem, the hedgehog or fox, or both, would simply pay him a visit in the Tornado, which usually took no more than a few minutes. Other than that, he preferred to stay in his uninterrupted solitude, venturing down to the world below only if it were more beneficial than staying up here.

The disadvantages of such an arrangement, which he hadn't really thought of before, was something he would learn incredibly soon, as he spotted something in the sky flying towards him, away from the sun. Its movements were erratic, swerving in many directions, but the shape seemed familiar somehow. He could have sworn he'd seen it before, but the night was darker than usual, making it harder to tell from a difference.

The shape eventually reached Angel Island's airspace before it abruptly dropped out of the air and into the woods, before Knuckles could see what it was. Curious, and also worried that it could be an invader, the echidna jumped down and headed towards the landing spot, pushing past the grass and bushes, fists raised just in case it was trouble. If it was, well, it would make for decent use of his training.

But when he finally laid eyes on that which had landed, all thoughts of fighting ceased. Knuckles gasped as he saw the small frame of Miles 'Tails' Prower crumpled up on the grass, and how he appeared to be rather physically battered, with blood and bandages all over his body, while emitting soft moans of pain. "Tails?" the echidna cried in horror and concern.

The fox did not reply, simply rolling over slowly to face Knuckles, revealing his cringing face, and by extension, problems bigger than his injuries. "Kn-knuckles…" he tried to call out weakly. In the brief moment they made eye contact, Knuckles could see the normally bright cerulean eyes that were almost completely spent of their usual warmth and cheeriness, replaced with a bizarre thousand yard stare. Like he wasn't actually looking at him.

Without another word, Knuckles the Echidna carefully lifted Tails and speedily brought him over to the altar, more specifically, a room inside its stone structure. It was clear the kid needed help, not just for his wounds, but with what caused them as well.

A few minutes later, Knuckles had finished doing what he could to help Tails using his knowledge of medicine and the supplies he had. He'd rebandaged the spots that needed it, including both tails, and let the fox rest on a small stone bed in the room. Then, taking a stool, Knuckles sat down nearby, deep in thought.

Tails may have been patched up, but Knuckles knew his work was far from over. He needed to know what had led to this in the first place, and started considering what questions to ask. One that jumped out at him, he realized, was, _where's Sonic?_ It was unlikely the hedgehog would let his best friend get hurt like this, unless something dreadfully serious had happened…

Regardless of his increasing curiosity and anxiety, it did not change the fact that the poor kid was out cold. It was best to let him be for now. Until Tails woke up, Knuckles grimly decided he'd have to mentally prepare for the worst. This was definitely going to keep him awake. For the first time, he found himself wishing he at least had a television set with a satellite dish on this island…

* * *

><p>It was unclear how much time had passed, since the stony room underneath the altar had neither a clock nor windows, but Knuckles, on the verge of passing out himself, finally heard Tails stirring, causing him to put all thoughts of sleep aside. "Tails?" he called out gently while facing the waking fox.<p>

"Ngh…" After struggling a bit, due to his injuries, Tails was also facing Knuckles. Mercifully, he no longer seemed to have that shell shocked gaze, but did that mean he could actually speak to him now?

It was worth a try, and not to mention, Knuckles was done waiting. "Tails, are you okay?"

Tails simply stared back motionlessly, apparently trying to process the question. He displayed no other visible reaction for several seconds, and just as the echidna wanted to repeat himself, the fox inhaled sharply while his eyes grew wide.

He remembered.

He resumed breathing, doing so as sharply and loudly as the first time, chest rising up and down rapidly as his face was crumpling up yet again. Then finally, the waterworks came, and without warning he came up to Knuckles and stuffed his face there onto his lap.

Knuckles wasn't one to show much emotion, but it was getting rather hard being stoic while seeing and hearing one of the few friends he had sob like that. He quickly wrapped his arms around the fox, hoping he was doing the affectionate gesture right, and closed his eyes. "Hey," he whispered, patiently letting Tails cry wordlessly for a full minute. Only after did the kid sob less intensely did he get on with the question that had kept him awake the whole night. "What happened?"

Tails sniffed, not looking upward. "It's…it's all my…my fault," he said, his voice broken, his spirit more so. "Sonic and…all those people…"

"What happened to Sonic?" Knuckles tried his best to remain calm, hiding all the turmoil and worries inside.

"In…a coma…h-hospital…"

It worked for about two seconds. "Wait, what?" he cried out, raising his voice. It was hard to imagine the hyperactive, ever-grinning hedgehog lifelessly lying on a hospital bed. "…how?"

"Eggman had…attacked Central City," Tails continued between sobs, "I tried…fighting the robots with Sonic, and…and…" He gulped as he found himself unable to continue. Unable to get to the answer, the most shameful part.

Knuckles considered what little information there was from Tails' reply, and remembered what the fox's injuries looked like as he'd patched him up. Having been in combat with Eggman's mechanized forces, the echidna knew what burn marks were like, especially the kind caused by lasers.

While the Guardian of Angel Island didn't know much about technology, that didn't mean he wasn't smart enough to deduce certain things. "You got wounded, and Sonic risked his life to protect you?" he asked. There was the chance of it causing Tails more distress, but he felt the question was necessary.

After ten seconds of silence, Tails slowly rose to face Knuckles, revealing his huge reddened eyes, the vibrant blue almost completely washed out. Then, with the stiffness of a statue, he nodded. "Y…yeah," he said, like he had just heard a criminal charge read out to him. As far as he was concerned, it was one. "And then…Eggman…abducted…hundreds of people, in transports…I could do nothing but…watch. Real…heroic of me, huh?" he added, displaying an unusual bitterness towards the end.

Knuckles could only find himself blinking. _Damn_. Realizing just how humiliated Tails must feel, he gently pulled the fox, now tearing up again, onto his chest and started patting him on the back. "Sounds like a lot happened down there…but don't blame yourself. It's not your fault."

Slowly, Tails got back up to make eye contact again, trying but failing to control the sobs. "But…that's the problem, Knuckles. It…it is."

"How could it be?" The echidna tried to coax, but he started to get the feeling that Tails had come up here not just to inform him of the disaster.

"Knuckles…when was the last time…you saw me fly? With my tails?"

The question seemed odd, but Knuckles considered it anyway. A few weeks…no, months…he frowned. "About a year, I think."

"Exactly," Tails said, his ears drooping along with the rest of his expression, "I…I haven't been training physically in…a long time, Knuckles. I got so reliant on the…the Tornado, and other tech, that…it never occurred to me what could happen if…if Eggman just shut them all down…before attacking."

Knuckles listened intently as he saw how Tails' self-indictment answered some questions, like why the fox didn't come here in the plane, and why he hadn't recognized him while he'd been flying here under his own power, in the night sky earlier. Because it really had been too long since he last saw Tails doing that.

Yet, Knuckles found it hard to blame Tails, considering how hard the kid was taking it onto himself. "So you think if you had trained more, things might not have turned out this badly," he said calmly.

Another reluctant nod. "I've…I've been too obsessed with technology, Knuckles. And against…Eggman's new trick, none of it helped…at all. So…" He wiped off the tears under both eyes with his forearm, and admitted, "I've destroyed everything."

At this, Knuckles was simply confused. "What do you mean?"

"I've…blown up my house, the one Sonic and I…lived in. And everything I made inside. It's all gone now," he stated almost in monotone.

The echidna actually recoiled backwards slightly in surprise. This was something he was even less able to imagine. Tails, the whiz kid, destroying his own inventions and house? "Really? But…"

"Really." Tails now finally sat up straight, shaking his head violently and swallowing hard before facing Knuckles again, with a focused but pleading stare. "Knuckles…you're the best fighter I know. could I…could I ask you to…train me…please? 'cause…" He pushed himself as close as possible up to the echidna before continuing, "I really, really need to make up for my mistakes. I need to learn how to fly and fight again without being distracted by machines. I need to go to the North Pole and rescue all those people and kick Eggman's butt. I need to do this for all the people I've let down. I need to do this…for Sonic." Then, even though he knew it would hurt, he grabbed Knuckles huge hands with his smaller, bandaged ones and squeezed them tightly. "_Please_."

Hearing Tails' plea sent the echidna into silent thought again. Whether or not Tails really deserved blame, the severity of the situation made that irrelevant. Eggman had just sent the planet's most well-known hero into a coma, and who knew how much progress he had already made on whatever plan he was up to? The two of them on Angel Island were the only ones who could stop the doctor now, even if one of them wasn't in the best shape at the moment, but that could be changed. There was no good reason to decline, Knuckles saw, and even if he had the heart to, where could, and would, Tails go? What would he do?

Realizing the highly unpleasant answer to that last one, Knuckles let out a sigh. "Well, there isn't much choice, is there?" he replied, shaking his head. "Okay. I'll train you. You'll stay here with me for now."

The transformation on Tails' face was immediate, and there was already a day and night difference. While still not smiling, the fox, for the first time, actually looked relieved, perhaps even hopeful, for which Knuckles was grateful. The echidna was pulled in for a tight hug. "T-thanks, Knuckles. Thank you for giving me this chance. It means everything to me."

"It's nothing," Knuckles said in return, almost smiling when they pulled back to look at each other again. "We'll have to deal with your wounds first, though it shouldn't take long. But I swear, Tails…we'll make Eggman pay."


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"What are we…going up there for?" Tails asked quietly as Knuckles helped him up the stony stairs of the altar, stepping slowly.

"The first thing we need to do. We're going to use the Master Emerald's power for something besides keeping this island afloat, for once," Knuckles replied, tugging the fox's arm gently. As they got closer to the massive gemstone, its bright green glow shone majestically against the night sky, like some sort of heavenly savior.

And in a way, it was about to serve as one.

When they finally reached the top of the altar, Tails raised his right arm to his eyes to block out the light, which he found overwhelming. Knuckles, though, was unfazed. "I don't normally do this," he began with a grunt, "but I'm going to use the Emerald's power to heal you up instantly. It takes up quite a bit of energy, and it'll cause Angel Island to drop much closer to the ground until it recharges, but given the circumstances you have no time to recover the usual way."

Tails, still feeling weak, nodded. It was something they'd known the Master Emerald could do, but Knuckles rarely used it due to how it compromised Angel Island's security. He had only one question. "Will it…hurt?"

"If I do it right, it shouldn't. At least, not any more than how you feel now." Knuckles turned to face Tails, his purple eyes attempting to assure the fox despite their steely gaze. "You ready?"

Another nod. "Y…yeah." All that movement earlier hadn't helped his wounds, which started to really sting after he had calmed down from his emotional outbursts. He couldn't wait to be rid of the pain, considering his big plan ahead. "Let's do it."

"Alright, in that case, just sit over there, facing the Emerald. Don't move until I'm done," Knuckles told him, pointing to a spot with a small raised rock. Without saying anything, Tails stumbled over to the rock and sat himself slowly, while wondering how this was going to work.

After that, Knuckles approached the Emerald, stopped a few feet before it, and closed his eyes. Raising his arms with his hands facing forwards, he began the procedure. "The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power…"

As Knuckles continued the sacred chant, the Master Emerald's glow, already bright, intensified further, almost to the point of turning white, and Tails had to shut his eyes lest he got blinded. At the same time, it was starting to provide more than just light. The gleam was such that it was actually audible now, and soon after that, even tangible, as Tails began feeling some sort of power wrapping itself around his body like a fluid, bathing him with a soft, almost soothing touch.

Only then did the effects of the Emerald's emissions kick in, as Tails suddenly felt his wounds shifting, twisting, and closing themselves up. He gasped as it happened, expecting such abrupt movements to hurt quite a bit, only to find that that the pain was instead disappearing along with the injuries themselves. The healing energy around him, it seemed, came with its own analgesic. He had to admit, it felt pleasing to have it course through his body, so much so that it even made him wonder if this is what a high felt like.

Finally, the Master Emerald let out one last sparkle at its brightest and loudest, before rapidly darkening, instantly plunging most of Angel Island into relative darkness again. The comforting sensations now gone, Tails opened his eyes, taking in a deep breath at yet how sudden that was. Ahead of him, the Emerald's glow had become rather pale, and next to it, Knuckles was standing upright again, panting slightly due to the exertion the effort required. "Done. How do you feel now?" he asked, looking at Tails again.

The fox almost wished it had lasted longer, but he knew that he had to get down to business. Glancing downwards, he immediately noted the differences he saw and felt around his body. The dishevelment and blood on his fur were all gone. Quickly he began ripping off the now unnecessary bandages, and once he was done he saw there wasn't even any sign of him ever being hurt. In fact, it looked more like he had just stepped out of a shower and expertly groomed himself.

Deciding to test his movements now, Tails balled his bare hands into fists, something that would have hurt earlier, but didn't now. The same was true when he did some simple stretching exercises, and even a tailwhip, all of which happened without any pain or discomfort.

"I think I'm ready now," Tails simply answered looking back at Knuckles, clear eagerness in his voice and eyes. Through that, the echidna was reminded that even though physically and externally Tails was now healed, internally their work had only just begun.

"That's good. Are you feeling tired, though?"

Tails considered the question, and was surprised to realize that, for all of the physical benefits the healing energy had given, he did still feel somewhat worn out. He wasn't going to collapse, but it was enough that it warranted some more rest. "Yeah, sort of," the fox replied while holding a hand to his forehead, "kinda weird, I was expecting it to recharge my energy too, considering how it restored the rest of me."

"The healing process does tend to wear people out," Knuckles confirmed, "you can go back to the bed down there, get some rest. In the meantime I'll stay up here and make adjustments to Angel Island's position."

"Okay. But…just one thing." Before heading down the stairs, he went over to Knuckles and, before the echidna could ask what Tails meant, wrapped him in a tight hug. "Thanks, Knuckles," he said, his voice showing a very slight hint of cracking, "for doing this. I…I know how troublesome this must be for you."

Knowing that he should have expected some expression of gratitude, Knuckles returned the hug. "Not at all," he simply said, trying to sound stoic, but he suspected it didn't come out that way, "duty is never troublesome."

Slowly, Tails backed away, and Knuckles saw how the fox was looking upset again. "I just wish we could have healed Sonic instead," he said, wiping one tear away, "he's hurt so much worse than I was…"

"I know that would have been ideal, but it would have required you to remove him from all those life support machines, which would have killed him. And even if it didn't, you weren't in any shape to carry him all the way up here earlier," Knuckles pointed out, patting Tails' shoulder lightly. Perhaps he could get the hang of this 'comforting' thing after all. "Given what this has come to, this is probably the best choice we can make."

Wiping another tear, the fox nodded reluctantly. "I guess you're right," he stated, voice still uneven, but he did his best to sound determined. "This is my only chance left. Our only chance. Can't…can't waste it."

Knuckles sighed. He knew there was a lot he had to do from here, and not much time to do it. Like Tails, he could not let his resolve waver. "Indeed," he said quietly while gently coaxing Tails towards the steps. "Now, go get some sleep. Your training officially begins at sunrise."

* * *

><p>Even though there was no alarm clock and he'd slept later than usual, Tails found himself bolting upright in the straw bed without prompt. He rubbed his eyes, glad for the rest that he'd had, as he definitely felt fully awake now.<p>

Out of habit, he reached for the gloves he normally placed nearby before sleeping, but they weren't there, of course. Frowning slightly, Tails went for his shoes instead and put them on. He wondered if he could get a replacement pair of gloves later – he wasn't used to his hands being bare for an extended period of time.

Then again, he reminded himself, being on Angel Island meant there was going to be plenty he wasn't used to, or at least, hadn't experienced in a long time – namely, his life before meeting Sonic, when he had no possessions or luxuries whatsoever. The lack of gloves was probably just the beginning.

_No_, Tails thought, shaking his head furiously. _This won't be like that. Knuckles is going to take care of you and train you. It will be worth it_.

Only then did he realize something. Looking around, he noticed that the echidna was not in the stony room. More than likely, the logical part of his mind reasoned, Knuckles slept outside to be in a better position to detect and fend off intruders.

Without further delay, Tails ventured out the room through the short entrance tunnel. Once he stepped onto the grass outside, he saw how the sun had just risen, its appearance matching the time he normally woke up at, 6 A.M. He also noticed how it seemed to be higher up in the sky than the moon was last night, likely caused by Angel Island's loss in altitude.

Rather than go around the altar to the stairs, Tails instead decided to spin his namesakes and lift himself in flight directly to the top. He was going to have to do this as often as possible, he knew, to get flying naturally back into his blood.

There Knuckles stood, next to the Master Emerald, back turned against it while apparently looking at something far away. The soft fan-like noise from the fox's tails caused him to turn around. "You're early," he stated, sounding like he didn't expect it but glad nonetheless, "was just about to go and call you."

"Morning, Knux," Tails greeted, settling down next to the echidna. He looked out at what Knuckles had been seeing, the horizon beyond Angel Island, and noticed something about it that looked familiar. Far in the distance was the outline of a sprawling coastal urban area, though one side was missing the large number of lights such places normally had. "Wait, isn't that…?"

"Yeah, the twin cities of Central City and Station Square," Knuckles replied with a nod, "I figured that since they're the two northernmost cities in the continent, nearest to the North Pole, positioning Angel Island here in-between could alert us in case Eggman attacks again, especially since it's dropped at least three hundred feet. I couldn't leave it in the same place as when you came to me."

"Right," Tails nodded. It made perfect sense. One thing about this new position that he didn't say, though, was that it meant that if Sonic actually woke up, he might look north and see Angel Island having suddenly moved here, which would likely catch his curiosity and prompt him to visit.

It made Tails tremble somewhat. If Sonic really came…what would he say? How would he feel towards Tails' actions?

Would they even still be friends?

"Anything wrong?" Tails heard Knuckles ask, breaking his thoughts, which were going nowhere good anyway.

"I'm good," he answered, and even raised his hands, curled into fists, to punctuate his point. "Are we starting now?" he asked, sounding more willing than ever.

"We are," Knuckles simply replied, and to this, Tails, for the first time since the entire incident began, actually smiled, even if only a little. "Come on. Let's clean up and have breakfast. Then it finally begins."

"Okay!"

* * *

><p>Tails was introduced to Knuckles' way of life on Angel Island through the way he brushed his teeth, which was by using a form of twig that he randomly snapped off a tree. This was followed by breakfast, which consisted solely of fruits from the trees and a limited amount of vegetables the echidna grew in the closest thing he had to a backyard, while drinks came in the form of water collected from various sources through various means, all by himself.<p>

Needless to say, it drew the fox's admiration, as Tails began feeling just how pampered he had been all this while. For a moment he even considered the possibility that his pre-Sonic life of barely scraping by could ironically become his salvation instead. Then again, he reminded himself, Sonic had never been one to refuse luxuries, and he could still kick ass any day. This wasn't what kept him in shape.

What came up next was.

"Alright, let's start with the basics," Knuckles said, bringing Tails over to the southernmost edge of Angel Island, from which the cities were visible. "You said you haven't been flying for around a year, so that's what you'll have to work on again."

"Yeah," Tails acknowledged while looking downwards, blushing slightly out of shame. "It's…been a while. But what do you have in mind?"

"I want you to fly around the outer edges of Angel Island, starting and ending at the same point, here." He tapped his foot on the grass for emphasis. "I expect your time taken to get shorter each time you do it."

"I got it," Tails replied. It was a decent enough way to start, but he had one question. "How are you going to record my time, though?"

"I'll just keep count mentally," Knuckles answered outright, "as should you. No need to be so exact that you need decimal points, though. Just a general idea will do. After enough times, you'll be able to tell."

Not being exact wasn't really something he was a fan of, but Tails didn't want to argue here. "Okay, just one last question. How long should I take?"

"That's a goal you'll have to set for yourself, Tails," the echidna told him, "you're the one flying here, not me. Only you can tell if your time matches your ability."

The fox scratched the back of his head, looking embarrassed again. "True, sorry."

"It's fine," Knuckles said flatly as folded his arms, looking at the fox expectantly. "Now get to it."

"Right."

Having asked enough, Tails began spinning his namesakes in preparation, when Knuckles held out his hand. "One more thing, no hovering in the air beforehand. You start from the ground, okay?"

"Oh." The purpose was obvious - he had to make sure he was able to get into his flying state and take off as fast as possible. Ceasing his tailspin, Tails moved over to where there was enough space for a short run-up. Then, taking in a deep breath, he ran towards the rocky edge, leapt, and took flight.

In the air, Tails, now having a calm environment to practice flying again, was able to recall the most efficient method of flight for himself. He had to keep his spinning tails at a very specific angle forwards to achieve maximum speed, as exceeding it could easily cause him to stall. He did his best to follow Angel Island's uneven coastline while keeping track of his mental stopwatch, something well within his multitasking mind's abilities. The thought of taking shortcuts occurred to him for the briefest of moments, before it was banished from his mind completely. No, he was definitely going to do this the right way, otherwise it would mean nothing.

Eventually he arrived back at the same spot where Knuckles was waiting, and came in for a landing. He stopped spinning his tails right as his feet hit the grass, only to unexpectedly stumble forwards, almost falling down before he righted himself, wildly waving his arms around in the process. It wasn't the smoothest landing, something he'd have to practice as much as flying itself, but it was better than the last few times he'd done it. _At least I didn't crash this time_.

Knuckles strode over to Tails, getting straight to business. "How long was it?"

"Ninety-five seconds, give or take three," Tails replied quickly, unsure if that was a good number or not. But as Knuckles had said, only he himself could determine that.

"Okay. At least you now have a baseline to compare to. I want you to repeat it, but this time..." the echidna went over, picked up a sack Tails hadn't noticed was there, and brought it over. As it dropped onto the grass, the sound of rocks colliding with each other could be heard. "This time, you'll do it while carrying this sack of rocks."

Tails gulped at what he'd been told. "But...how?"

"How you carry it is up to you, but I want to see it still with you when you come back here, understand?"

He grabbed the sack and pulled at it, finding that he could barely move it a few inches. Still, maybe his flight could help, and even if he dared, he refused to say no. "O-okay," he muttered with some hesitation, "I'll do it."

"You can hover before the timer starts for this one, at least until you're used to the weight."

"Okay." Relieved that that restriction was lifted, he hovered in the air and attempted to lift the sack. It was still heavy, and already he could feel the strain on his biceps and ungloved fingers, but he was able to lift it off the ground - it was perhaps slightly heavier than Sonic when he gave him a lift frequently, although since it had been so long since then he wasn't sure he could trust the comparison. Then he traveled the same path again, more slowly this time, unsurprisingly, while needing to think up and down on how to compensate for the extra load all the way.

By the time he rounded back, the sack indeed was still with him, which he quickly let go the instant he was over the imaginary finish line. The fox was grasping his sore upper arms with his equally sore fingers, breathing heavily. "Man..."

"How long?" Knuckles simply asked.

"Hundred and twenty seconds," Tails answered between breaths. He knew he'd have to repeat that, which he honestly didn't mind, but hoped that he could at least catch a short break beforehand.

"Alright. You can have a five minute break, then we'll resume. You'll start off again free handed, and then with the sack after that, and then back again. Got it?"

A nod. "S-sure. Thanks. For the break, I mean."

Tails repeated the course several more times that morning, and by the time Knuckles stopped him after his twentieth, he had managed to get his weightless flights down to eighty seconds. In the process, he had also learned, or perhaps relearned, how to keep himself much steadier while flying, and his landings had gotten smoother too. His weighted flights on the other hand fluctuated a bit more, as some subsequent rounds actually took a few seconds longer, though at least he did seem to strain a bit less each time he came back.

Those improvements aside, there was one more thing that he had to work on with this particular exercise, and likely all the others Knuckles would prepare for him later. It was apparent what it was when Knuckles saw Tails panting heavily, clutching his furry chest. "Almost…can't…breathe…"

"Not a bad start," Knuckles spoke, arms still folded, his tone split between that of a reassuring friend and an indifferent instructor, "but you'll have to improve your stamina. Enough of this for today, though. Take a quick break, and we'll move on."

Tails was allowed to sit down and have some water for five minutes before Knuckles brought him to the next exercise. After crossing the thick woods, they came to the flat, empty spot in front of the altar, before the stairs. "We're here. Take your shoes off, Tails."

Tails quickly did as he was told, putting his shoes and socks aside. Stepping onto the dusty ground with his bare feet felt strange, to say the least, as he felt the bumps underneath his heels, the fine particles between his toes. Again, something he hadn't had to feel since getting his first pair of shoes long ago.

"We're going to be doing some basic moves based on the ancient martial arts of the echidnas," Knuckles explained, before settling into a battle-ready stance, fists at his waist and knees bent slightly and rigidly. "Just follow my every step; I'll correct you when I have to. Remember to exert your strength as much as possible."

"Okay." At first Tails wondered how a fighting style taught to him by someone else would incorporate the use of his twin namesakes, but he stopped that line of thought. _One thing at a time_. He had to trust that Knuckles knew what to do.

The event went by smoothly and unremarkably, although after a while of punching, kicking and blocking, Tails could recognize its significance. Knuckles was basically teaching him how to properly focus his strength, and that if he could do it with his hands and feet, it would work even better with his tails, or so he deduced. Aside from that, he also knew it meant learning how to use all of his limbs to fight, not just two. It gave him the incentive to throw each punch and kick as ferociously as possible.

After an hour, Knuckles gestured to Tails to follow him into the woods again. Not too deep inside, they came to a spot where it looked like some logging had taken place, with a felled midsized tree, a stump, and a few stacks of wooden planks, each with varying thicknesses and all with smooth, clean edges. Looks like Knuckles had been busy.

The echidna went over to the planks and picked up one of the thinnest ones. "Now I want you to break these planks while I hold them up," he said, holding it in front of him with both hands, "use the techniques I taught you just now."

Tails gulped. Breaking stuff was something he left to his tails, not his hands and feet. Still, the moves he learned earlier weren't only going to be for show.

Steadying himself, he got his fists ready, assumed the proper stance, and slowly moved his arm towards and away from the plank, his knuckles tapping it each time. Once he felt confident enough, he drew his fist all the way back and threw it just like he'd been trained to.

The plank snapped with ease, though after that, Tails quickly covered his fist with his other hand, cringing. "Ow…" Once more he wished he had his gloves on.

"Don't worry, after enough times, your body can take it," Knuckles just said, not sounding too concerned with the pain Tails felt, because he knew he didn't have to be. "I know our levels of strength are very different, but some training principles apply to everyone. Now, let's try a kick."

Even though it hurt, Tails eventually learned that Knuckles was right. An hour later of smashing more planks later, he had already moved on to the third level of thickness available, and it did get easier each time. Nevertheless, his knuckles and the insteps of his feet were sore once Knuckles signaled the end of this session. He was glad when he was allowed to wear his shoes again.

Next they came to a spot with several more wooden logs. The sight made Tails wonder if his training was going to come at the cost of Angel Island's forestry, but once again, he told himself it was something Knuckles could manage reasonably. "Here you get to develop your own unique skills," the echidna informed him while dragging a log out from the pile, away from the others. "Cut this log with your tails, as cleanly as possible."

_Now we're talking!_ Tails couldn't help but feel a bit more excited about this part. After all, it was a chance to hone his own natural attack method. For a moment, though, he felt a brief but sharp pang of shame about how he had virtually abandoned it throughout the past year. Well, no longer. It was time to fix that.

Tails stood before the horizontally placed log and steadied himself like Knuckles taught him, but now, instead of a punch or kick, he swung his tails around, sharpened their edges as much as he could, and brought them down onto the log vertically like an ax. "Hyeah!"

The log split into two without issue. Considering its thickness, Tails was surprised he could do it that easily, and without pain too. With a burst of confidence, he pulled his tails back and checked out the results up close.

"Hmm, looks like sharpness isn't an issue," Knuckles commented as he observed Tails' work, which was smooth enough for his satisfaction, "but what about penetration?"

He then went to the log pile and pulled out three logs this time, keeping them together as he placed them on the ground. "Okay, try this one."

This instruction deflated the fox somewhat. His tails had always been less suited for penetrating deep into thick obstacles like robot armor, compared to Knuckles' fists or Sonic's quills while he was spinning. But then, this was exactly why he needed this exercise, wasn't it? To eliminate, or at least mitigate, that very weakness. Just like how other exercises worked on other shortcomings.

If he could cut one log, certainly he could cut three with just a bit more effort, Tails told himself as he stood before his targets. Bringing his tails around again, he sharpened them with the same focus that he'd learned, and swung downwards.

CRACK! The logs split loudly, not as cleanly as with the single log, but completely nevertheless. Tails pulled back his namesakes and cradled them instinctively, as there were sore from the impact, not severely, but enough to make him wince a bit.

"Not bad, but we can keep working on it," Knuckles spoke, "good to see you've applied the focus I've taught you without me telling you to. Keep that up and it will get easier."

After chopping down more logs, mostly in bundles of three, for the next one hour, Tails learned that just like with the wooden planks, it was true. By the time he'd split the last one, he was already almost finding it boring.

Now out of logs, Knuckles elected to continue using something else. "Good work, now try and split this," he told him, placing before him a large rock, about the size of a vacuum cleaner, that he'd taken from nearby.

"Um…" Although it caused some apprehension, Tails made sure to keep the momentum from his confidence going, and promptly had a crack at the rock, literally. However, it turned out to be denser than he'd expected, and his tails bounced off its rough surface after only making a small dent. "Ouch!" Immediately he brought his tails in front of him to massage the sore spots, gritting his teeth as he did so. "That…didn't work."

"You're still making progress, so don't fret," Knuckles said, sounding more comforting for once, "but we'll try this again later. Let's carry on."

After following Knuckles again, Tails saw that he had been led back to the same area in front of the altar where he'd first practiced his basic moves. "I tested your strength earlier, so now I shall test your speed," Knuckles declared, "although since I'm wary of chopping down too many trees, you're going to practice it with me."

Tails looked at Knuckles curiously. Did it mean…?

"Time to spar, kid," the echidna answered the question forming in the fox's head like he'd heard it, while getting into his combat stance, "throw your best shot. Don't hold back and do everything you can. I'll limit my strength for your safety."

Tails nodded, feeling a bit nervous. "Uh, okay." Although a part of him was worried about attacking or hurting his own friends, he assured himself that there was nothing to worry about, that Knuckles would be able to defend himself and was tough enough to take any hit the fox could dish out, assuming he landed any.

Letting his eagerness to prove himself overcome his hesitation, Tails assumed the same combat stance right before Knuckles, eyes locked onto one another while breathing deeply.

Then he charged, beginning with a right hook. Unsurprisingly, the echidna intercepted it, doing so with his left hand while his right was already coming up towards Tails as a fist. The fox's own left hand came up to block it, but right as he did, Knuckles threw his left fist instead, and Tails' right wasn't able to defend against it in time.

That was where his reflexes helped, as one bushy tail suddenly swung out from behind and knocked the huge fist aside. Surprised but grateful for the help from his extra limbs, Tails used the opportunity and used the same tail, together with his right hand again, to hit Knuckles. Instead of blocking, this time the echidna simply stepped back and to his right. Meanwhile, his right hand, which he had withdrawn while attempting his thwarted left punch, was coming in quickly again. This was when Tails' other namesake whipped around, not just to prevent the punch, but to wrap around Knuckles forearm.

As Tails readied another right punch, Knuckles abruptly dropped himself onto the ground, landing on his back. "Woah!" With the fox's tail still grabbing the echidna's arm, Tails got dragged down together, which ended up with him hitting the floor with the left side of his face. He was fortunate that it was soil rather than a harder surface.

"Not bad," Knuckles spoke as he removed his arm from Tails' grip. From the sounds of it, he actually seemed impressed, even if a bit. "Get up."

The fox lifted himself back onto his feet, rubbing the dust off his face. "Very good," the echidna now said, "you're doing exactly what I wanted you to – to develop your own fighting techniques. Always remember, Tails," he continued as he got up close to the fox, "you're the only person in the world with two tails. I can't teach you how to use them effectively, but I can make you learn how to do it yourself. Adapt your own moves to the basics I've shown you, and with constant practice, you'll become the most effective fighter you can possibly be."

Tails stood there in silent consideration, understanding what Knuckles had intended all along. It wouldn't make sense for Tails to copy Knuckles fighting style directly, due to their vast physical differences – he would have to come up with one for himself and stick with it. But at least Knuckles would be there to help him along the way. "I get it," the fox replied with a nod, "I'll keep working on my own techniques."

"You do that," Knuckles said approvingly as he started walking away, "now, let's go have some lunch. After that, we'll repeat the same exercises again. We'll do it at least four times a day, understand?"

"R…right!" The number sounded intimidating, but Tails found himself welcoming it. For the first time since the incident, he was starting to feel not merely confident, but hopeful. Hopeful that he could really come out of this stronger. To no longer be kicked around by Eggman's bots. To save those people. To undo his mistakes.

_But what about Sonic?_

To this, Tails found no answer. He had to accept, sadly, that that was one he couldn't do much about, at least not directly. Maybe he couldn't help Sonic get better, the fox said to himself, but he knew damn well he could make sure it never happened again, to him or others.

All this thought led to one more lingering question he had, a pertinent one. "Knux?"

"What is it?"

"How long…how long do you think I'll need to be ready to save those people?" he asked, voice wavering slightly. There was a fear in it that if it took too long, it would all be meaningless.

Knuckles stopped walking and stood in silence, as did Tails. Finally, he offered his frankest answer. "I can't promise anything, Tails. But as long as you do your very best according to your regimen, you'll be able to get to that base and rescue them before Eggman completes his plan, whatever it is, or at least limit what he can do. On that, you have my word."

**Author's Note: My apologies again for the delay. Good news though, my exam's over, and I have the drive to write again. Hope to complete this story before the end of the year. Thanks for your continued support!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Time taken to round Angel Island: fifty-five seconds.

Time taken to round Angel Island while carrying rocks: sixty-two seconds.

Maximum thickness of wood smashed by palm: six inches.

Maximum thickness of rock smashed by tail: six feet.

Time taken to smash twenty six-foot-thick rocks: fourteen seconds.

Time taken to tackle Knuckles down in sparring session: ten seconds.

Or perhaps shorter than that, the echidna thought, as he was thrown onto the floor for the fifth time that day. He hadn't been defeated each session, of course, but it was still rather impressive to him. He got up slowly, head turning to take a closer look at his opponent, his protégé. After the amazing progress he'd witnessed, he still had some difficulty believing the changes he saw.

Now standing before Knuckles, Miles 'Tails' Prower was no longer the thin, scrawny nerd that he was when he'd first come here. Now, the fox had slightly but noticeably more muscles under his fur, with his hands – he never got any replacement gloves – showing particularly mean sinews as they curled into fists, clashing quite a bit with his still small frame. None of it was for show - from the last few sessions, the echidna knew that the fox's punches and kicks genuinely reflected the strength they seemed to have, with the sore spots on his body he was still rubbing as evidence. That wasn't even going into the power his tails packed now, which he didn't even need to use during this spar. Hardiness aside, his appearance had also changed in other ways. His fur was messy in many spots, with a rough, unkempt edge in general, not to mention darker too, even under the morning sun. His embrace of Knuckles' low tech, outdoor lifestyle, the seriousness with which he took his training, and the fact that nobody else lived here had led him to stop caring too much about grooming and neatness.

Regardless, there was one thing that stayed the same. Knuckles, now on his feet, gazed into Tails' eyes. Even if his body didn't give away his age, his eyes did, still having that young, eager but burning passion, not just to learn, but to fix things. It had been there all this time, and still was.

The normally stoic Knuckles, taking in his observations, couldn't help but smile. The potential that the fox always had had was now fully realized. He knew right then that there was only one thing left to do.

"Knuckles, are you alright?" Tails asked, sounding concerned, perhaps even apologetic, "I hope that wasn't too rough."

Somehow, that only made Knuckles smile more. "I'm okay, Tails."

It was the fox's turn to smile. "Alright, come on! Let's not waste time, we gotta eat something and move on."

Well, that was true. "Agreed…but Tails, wait."

"Yeah?" Tails spun around, looking on curiously.

Knuckles stood silently for a moment, carefully looking over the fox one more time, before making his decision. Yes, it was time. "I think you're ready."

Tails went wide-eyed hearing the proclamation. Given the rate at which he'd been improving, he'd expected it to come sooner or later, but it still came as a surprise. "R…really?"

"Yes." Knuckles let his confirmation linger a bit before continuing. "You've reached the point where continuing training will only result in diminishing returns, not to mention it's been long enough. If you stay any longer, Eggman might complete his plan, and it'll be futile."

Tails breathed heavily without saying anything. Reminded of his original mission, he looked north, the direction he would soon head to, at the empty horizon. The more he thought about it, the more surprised he was that Eggman hadn't attacked yet during his whole time here.

And he really didn't want to wait until that moment. "So…I guess I can head off now?" he asked, sounding both excited and worried at the same time.

"Well, you only need to ask yourself one more question," Knuckles told him while maintaining close eye contact, "do _you_ think you're ready?"

The question was something Tails had to consider, but not for too long, he realized. The gains in strength and speed he'd achieved since he'd started had startled even himself, and with those two, he had shed his helplessness. No longer would he feel intimidated by the giant bots Eggman had. No longer would he be distracted. No longer would he be too slow. No longer would anyone else suffer because of any amateur mistakes on his part. "Yeah," he replied with unprecedented determination, "though hearing it from you…that means a lot too."

Now turning away, Knuckles started moving. "Then we better get going. Let's have our meals…and then it'll be time."

Lunch was as simple as usual, and Tails had grown used to it, just like he had to everything else here. He savored it, knowing it would be his last one here, at least for a while, and welcoming the energy and nutrients it would give him for his goal.

Then, the moment finally arrived.

"Alright, let's not drag this out," Knuckles told Tails as they slowly walked side by side towards the northern edge of Angel Island, before coming to an abrupt stop. He turned to face Tails once more, showing, for the first time, a soft, caring gaze, not unlike that of Sonic's. "You've learned well, Tails. I wish you the best of luck."

It was jarring, to be sure, but Tails found it equally heartfelt, almost overwhelmingly so. Almost out of instinct, Tails reached forwards and wrapped the echidna in a hug again. It was the first thing he'd done coming here, and was only appropriate that it was the last too before leaving. "Thanks for everything, Knuckles," the fox said, voice cracking slightly as a grateful tear slid down his muzzle, "I've only come this far because of you."

"You always had the potential, Tails," Knuckles replied, keeping his tone steady, though even he was finding it a bit hard too, "I just showed you how to harness it. And for someone who has been only been here for three months, you've done it remarkably fast."

"I guess so," Tails said quietly as he wiped his face, sniffing slightly, albeit with a small smile. This was followed, however, by his lips straightening and a fist rising. "I-I'm going to save those people, Knux," he continued, sounding so much like a kid, yet also unlike one at the same time, "I'm gonna kick Eggman's butt. I'm not scared."

"You can do it," the echidna said, again sounding like Sonic, strangely enough, "I'd come with you, but I can't simply leave Angel Island, not if Eggman expects me to be away. Go give him one for me and Sonic, okay?"

Hearing Sonic's name made one of Tails' huge ears flick, but he didn't react more to it than that. "I promise," the fox answered along with a nod, before stepping over to the very edge of the cliff. "Bye, Knux."

"Goodbye, Tails."

After giving the echidna one last brief but intense look, Tails faced north yet again, kneeling on one knee as his namesakes whirred up behind him. Once they reached their maximum spinning speed, the fox shot up and forwards, blowing down the grass he'd been standing on in his wake. In the air, he shrunk into the distance at remarkable speed, shooting towards his goal.

Knuckles breathed a sigh, both out of exertion and relief. His work was finally done. He could only hope now that it would truly pay off.

* * *

><p>Just like he always had in his life before, Knuckles was checking his plantations alone again, for the first time in three months. He had gotten used to Tails being with him during this hour – during most of the day, for that matter, even though he'd always known that the fox's stay would be temporary. It took some effort, but he had to admit that spending time with Tails had definitely revealed a side he'd never really known he'd had, as someone who'd lived alone for nearly his whole life.<p>

He shook his head. Pondering his own personality could come later. He finished off the watermelon and stood up, intent on moving Angel Island back to a less open area, when he heard an unusual sound, a low hum of some kind, coming from the air.

Instantly his guardian instincts kicked in as he leapt all the way up to the top of the altar, the highest point of the island, from which he could survey for any incoming threat, particularly airborne ones. His sensitive ears helped him locate the source of the noise almost instantly, but what he saw with his eyes dumbfounded him.

Coming in from the south was an old red biplane…a very familiar model, one Knuckles hadn't seen in many years, emitting an equally familiar droning, as it headed toward the flat patch of space on the east side of the island, one normally reserved for Tails' fancy jet planes. It made him raise his brows and, surprisingly enough, his heartbeat to rise. _Could it be…?_

He jumped off the altar and pushed through the woods to get to the runway. As he got close, however, he stopped moving, instead ducking down into the thick bushes to observe. No matter how sure he was, he needed absolute confirmation.

The plane lowered its wheels and touched down in an unwieldy, clumsy motion, teetering and jittering all the way, Knuckles saw, as if the machine, or perhaps the pilot, was having problems. After a good half minute of threatening to veer off the runway in either direction, one of which would make it crash into the trees and the other fall into the sea, the thing finally came to a halt.

Knuckles moved in closer, eyes kept on the now motionless aircraft. Only after a moment of idling did its engine shut off, and out from the cockpit came-

_By the emeralds, it _is_ him!_ Alarmed at the sight, the echidna sprinted up to the pilot that had just stumbled out, but wasn't fast enough to prevent him from suddenly collapsing. Knuckles slid to a stop and knelt down before the visitor, eyes wide with surprise and horror.

Sonic the Hedgehog was not in good shape. He was awake and breathing, to be sure, but his face was deeply pale, and something about his gaze looked plain wrong, as was the lifeless way he laid across the dusty ground, considering how energetic he normally was. Given his state, Knuckles found it amazing that the hedgehog was able to manage flying the plane all the way here. "Sonic?" he called out quietly.

"Hey…Knux," Sonic replied weakly, and despite how he felt, still managed to grin back, "thanks for…comin' up here so quick…" He was practically panting between each word.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, sorta," Sonic said even as he clutched his chest, "but Knux, first thing's first, I gotta ask you something."

Knuckles held Sonic's hand gently to pull him up. "Let me get you on your feet first," he said, suspecting he already knew what question he was about to hear. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

"Knux…is…Tails here?"

Now facing the wobbly but upright hedgehog, Knuckles was silent, conflicted about what to say. Given what Tails had supposedly done before coming here that night, he was concerned for what Sonic's reaction would be, and what he would do after that. Not every day did your best friend burn your shared home down…

But there was something about Sonic's eyes after he'd asked that, something pleading, pathetic even. It wasn't anything Knuckles had ever expected to see there, but it was undeniable. "Knux…please," the hedgehog whispered. Whatever pain he felt throughout his body, it was clear from how he spoke that it was his heart that hurt the most. "I gotta know."

Knuckles closed his eyes and sighed. "He…he was here, Sonic. He'd been staying with me."

"Right…thanks," Sonic said with a nod. Somehow the answer made him look less ill, even if just slightly. "I guess this was the only place he could come to, though…after what happened before that."

The echidna nodded. "He told me."

Sonic leaned against the plane to support himself, looking at Knuckles sadly. "So you know, huh?"

"Yeah." Knuckles then reached forward and took Sonic's hand again. "But enough talk. You look like crap. Just come with me, okay?"

Unsurprisingly, Sonic was in no shape to run at his usual speed, and Knuckles had to hold onto him, and near the end, even carry him on his back while going up the stairs to the Master Emerald. He sighed, knowing that he had to use the same trick on Sonic as he had on Tails. Angel Island had only recently recovered its altitude, but now it had to go down again. Despite that, the echidna's hesitation was minimal. He knew dropping the island a few hundred feet wouldn't be anything compared to letting Sonic remain like this.

Only after placing Sonic down on the stone floor nearby did Knuckles realize that the hedgehog was now unconscious, though he tried not to panic. He was already here. Just one more step left.

Knuckles began his chant, and shortly into it, the Master Emerald worked its magic, shining brightly and loudly, the light it emitted focusing on Sonic and banishing whatever was sapping his energy.

Once the procedure was complete, the Emerald's glow faded away, and once again it was accompanied by the floating island descending noticeably, at least to Knuckles. The echidna opened his eyes and went over to the hedgehog still lying on the ground. He hoped it worked. "Sonic? Can you hear me?"

The hedgehog was motionless for several worrisome seconds, but finally stirred. He breathed heavily while slowly opening his eyes. As they faced each other, Knuckles saw that Sonic's gaze had improved greatly, and he sighed in relief. "Woah…I'm feeling…a lot better," the hedgehog spoke, sounding pleasantly surprised, "thought I was about to die back there."

"That's what it looked like to me," Knuckles said, not trying to hide his concern, "what the hell happened to you?"

Sonic used his newly gained energy to get back onto his feet, but followed it with an unenergetic sigh. "I…I woke up from my coma like, three days ago. When I heard what happened to my…our home…I knew I couldn't stay in the hospital any longer." He shook his head. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised…with me out of the way and Tails hurt, our house was an easy target for Eggman, and he thought by blowing it up we'd never be able to strike back at him."

_Wait, what?_ It took a while for Sonic's explanation to make sense to Knuckles. The hedgehog actually thought it was Eggman that bombed their home, instead of Tails? _This is going to get complicated_.

Then a wry smile found its way onto Sonic's muzzle. "But looks like he forgot about the good old biplane we used against him last time, the Tornado – the _original_ Tornado, I mean, before we used the same name for the jets. Kept it in safe storage for the memories...and for rainy days like this one. Luckily from what I've heard, Eggman doesn't seem to have done anything since that day. He's got no idea what's coming."

"How did you still manage to fly that thing?" Knuckles finally decided to ask, genuinely curious.

"Well, believe it or not, it wasn't that bad when I first took off. But my body started acting up halfway…I'm just glad your island was nearby."

"Glad you made it, considering the risk." The echidna replied, his relieved tone masking his conflicted feelings about Sonic not knowing the truth about his house, and whether to tell him. He wasn't sure why he even felt that way. Perhaps, he thought, having seen the two being such close brothers for so long…he wouldn't know if he could accept being the one to drive their friendship apart. He was a loner, but that didn't mean he wanted to make others loners too.

Finally came the topic of utmost pertinence. "Tails," Sonic said, his brow curved worriedly as he did, "where is he now?"

After pondering that question for a few seconds, Knuckles made his decision. There was no reason to lie about this one. The house was in the past, but this was a critical current event. Even with Tails' vastly increased abilities, it wouldn't hurt for Sonic to join him, at least as long as nothing happened between them. "He left this morning, Sonic."

"Really?" The hedgehog recoiled in surprise. "But where to? I mean-wait…" His eyes only stretched wider at the revelation. "Oh, man…I better get going now, then. Kid's going to get himself-"

"Sonic, wait!" Knuckles said, raising his voice without really meaning to. It occurred to him that Sonic needed to know the changes Tails had undergone, lest he still thought he needed to protect the kid at all costs, and become something else that could jeopardize their relationship, not to mention their chances in the mission. "You want to go now, I understand. But listen, Tails didn't just seek shelter with me, I also trained him. He wanted me to, and I helped him out the best I could, for the last three months. He's not…he's not weak anymore, Sonic," he said outright, believing there was no better way to put it, "so you have to believe in him too, okay? Whatever happened in Central City last time won't happen again, either to him _or_ to you," he made sure to emphasize, "trust me."

Sonic stared back at the echidna blankly after hearing the quick elaboration. "All that…really happened?"

"Yeah," Knuckles answered with a firm nod. Then another question popped into his mind. "Hey, before you go…what are you going to say to Tails when you meet up with him?"

"I…" The hedgehog seemed dumbfounded. "I…I don't really know, honestly. But I'll figure something out."

"You do that," Knuckles said, patting Sonic's shoulder. "Now get going, see if you can catch up to him."

"A-alright," Sonic said, about to head down the stairs, but turned around for one last thing, "hey, Knux…thanks for everything. Healing me, training and sheltering Tails…everything. We owe you a whole bunch."

"You're welcome," the echidna replied. He still had his uncertainties, but he decided that just as he'd told Sonic to believe in Tails, he'd tell himself to believe in both of them too. "Good luck."

* * *

><p>The air was getting chillier, and he was passing quite a few icebergs already. The wind made him tremble despite his fur, but not too much. At this time of year and its location on the planet, Angel Island's temperatures at its highest altitude could get rather low too, and it was from there he'd learned how to adapt to the cold.<p>

After what seemed like hours of flight, which he gladly noted did not drain him much, if at all, he finally saw several man-made structures on the vast ice sheet, including small blocky buildings, but most prominently a large metallic door, enough to fit industrial vehicles through, built into the cliff. From the outside it would appear to be some sort of research station, as there were a number of them situated around the top of the world.

Going deeper into the area beyond the security perimeter, however, revealed something else completely.

As soon as the visitor touched down on the edge of the ice sheet near the water, an alarm sounded instantly, with klaxons going off on the walls of the small buildings. Immediately after that, their doors opened up, with the main shutters letting out several tracked robots, all eight feet tall and heavily armed, while out from the roof hatches rose massive gun turrets. Now on full alert, all security forces turned and pointed their weapons at the sole intruder.

Miles "Tails" Prower stood firmly at his landing spot, looking down the muzzle of every gun in front of him. Their most likely intention was to intimidate him, and it would have worked in the past. Not now. Even as the robots slowly but menacingly moved in closer, the only reaction it elicited from the two-tailed fox was a defiant, unflinching stare…and a wide, cocky grin.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note: The Tornado in this case refers to both the biplane like in the games and the jet plane that had been destroyed earlier. It's like this because I hadn't expected to use the former until I wrote this chapter. Apologies for any confusion. Reviews are appreciated!<strong>

**Update September 3, 2013: changed a line based on feedback. Thanks Phaenur!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

_Brrr._ Sonic didn't come to the north polar region often, although given that Eggman had established a base here some two years ago, he knew that paying it a visit would be inevitable. He never expected doing so in this old plane, however. It held great memories for him and was one of the things that had forged the friendship between him and Tails when they'd first met, but as Eggman's armaments had evolved in strength, it had slowly become obsolete, a fact that Sonic reluctantly accepted after agreeing with Tails to switch to a modern fighter jet. With the turmoil that had occurred three months ago, though, it had therefore come as a great relief to him that their decision to preserve the biplane in off-site storage rather than selling it away had paid off.

Tails. From the moment Sonic had taken off Angel Island, the fox remained a constant presence in hedgehog's mind. He wondered non-stop about how much Tails had changed or stayed the same, how he was doing now, but most of all, what they would say to each other when they finally met. Shortly after awakening from his coma, he'd been informed that Tails had been last sighted running away from the hospital in tears, not that Sonic could blame him. It was reasonable, he thought, to expect just as much waterworks from the fox were he to see his big brother show up so suddenly and appear so healthy. Despite everything, the way the image played out in his head made him smile for the first time since waking up. _Yeah, it can't be that bad…right?_

The breeze made his teeth chatter again. It was too bad that he hadn't brought along a coat or at least a scarf. The steadily lowering temperatures were actually starting to plant doubts inside him about his own performance. He'd done some physical therapy in the hospital before deciding to bail, helping him back into a more presentable shape, but could he hold up in this weather?

_If Tails can_, he heard another voice inside say, _why can't you?_

_Because I'd spent the last three months asleep on a bed while Tails had been physically training?_ Sonic tried to reason back.

_Then what are you gonna do, not go down there? Just sit in the plane circling around while Tails takes the lead? Just like what Tails had been doing before all this?_

_No!_ Sonic thought with a frown. _But…what if I really do slip up?_

_You've always had the risk of slipping up before. What makes this time different?_

_Because I might actually be…weaker now?_ Right after producing that thought, Sonic did a mental double take, and carefully considered its words again. The clarity that came next made him blink. Was this what Tails felt like that day? This kind of feeling of self-doubt and helplessness? The feeling that you had no choice but to rely on your best friend? _No wonder the poor kid took it so hard_.

Regardless, the fact remained that he had to take some form of action once he arrived. The debate carried on in his head with little progress, until he finally came to a sight that caught his attention. On the vast ice sheet ahead were a group of small buildings that were…producing smoke?

Curious now, Sonic turned the biplane slowly to circle around the site, then rolled the plane slightly so that he could turn his head and get a better look. It was no illusion – most of the place really was burning, and the smell already reached all the way up here. But what took in Sonic the most was that the specific objects on fire were, although already smashed into debris, still recognizably the carcasses of large armed robots and gun turrets. Perhaps best of all, there was also a jagged hole on the large metallic door they had been guarding, whose size seemed to be just enough for a furry to get through.

The hedgehog's mouth hung open at first, but then quickly gave way to laughter, caused by a mix of amazement, disbelief, and the abruptness of it all. It was then that he knew exactly what to do.

* * *

><p>The bots inside proved to be even weaker than the ones outside. Multiple hovering patrol drones combed the steel corridors with their machine guns in an attempt to hit the intruder, but the relatively tight confines of the environment that were supposed to favor them weren't helping. If anything, it only made it easier for Tails to dodge their shots as he repeatedly bounced off the floor and walls, with bullet holes decorating the spot he'd just been at half a second later, before ramming his constantly spinning tails into each lightly protected drone one or two at a time and splitting them, and then bounce again. He'd practiced this technique using the trees while smashing rocks on Angel Island, and was glad to be able to put it into practice with such results.<p>

Just a few minutes after Tails had broken in, the last drone joined its brethren to become a scattered pile of broken electronic circuit boards on the floor. The fox, meanwhile, had a considerably more graceful landing, somersaulting and plopping softly onto the floor on both feet and one hand with his back hunched, like he'd just performed a gymnastics exercise.

He was tempted to sneer at how easy it had been so far, but didn't give in. Knuckles had taught him to always be prepared for things to get worse at any time, although even if he hadn't, the fox had already learned that lesson himself the hard way. _Stay focused_.

Tails sprinted down the wide stony corridor, deeper into the darkness. Robotnik never was one for proper lighting, and this base was no exception. He moved quickly but cautiously, tails spinning behind him for a speed boost, eyes darting around and ears twitching for any more security popping out. It would be a lie, he knew, to claim that he didn't feel nervous at all, but it was easy enough to suppress. Perhaps it was because it actually seemed easier to charge head on instead of sneaking around, so that when more robots saw him and attacked, it wouldn't really be any surprise. _So that's why Sonic prefers it this way_.

Eventually the corridor ended at a similarly large door as the one behind him. Unlike that one, however, this one actually slid open the moment he approached it, much to his surprise. Might as well accept it, Tails thought – smashing through the huge metal door was possible, but needed too much time, and also placed a great strain on his tails even with their vastly increased strength, which he needed to conserve for genuine threats.

The sliding door slowly shifted aside to reveal a large chamber. At least that was what Tails guessed, his only clue being that the walls and ceiling of the corridor didn't extend beyond the door. How large exactly was impossible to tell, for it was also in complete darkness aside from the small light above its entrance.

The fox took several cautious steps inside, his senses still on full alert. His eyes needed time to adjust to the darkness, and he was wondering why they hadn't earlier. The corridor seemed to have had just the minimum amount of light needed for his natural night vision to not kick in, even if it hadn't felt that way.

Regardless, not being able to see whatever may be lurking in the dark, which could even be aiming its weapons straight at him right this instant, was making him take in deep breaths. Knowing Eggman, he thought, there had to be some tough robot in this room, much bigger and tougher than everything he'd dealt with so far. That much could be predicted. It didn't make it any less unnerving, though.

But then again, Tails realized, if Eggman could have just delivered a cheap shot, he would have done so seconds ago the moment he stepped through the door. There was no way he didn't know who the intruder was now. If he was letting it delay this much, it meant he most likely intended for the fox to see something.

In that case, he had neither the time nor patience to deal with this silent tension, and decided to speak up. "I'm here, Eggman," Tails said loudly, his voice surprisingly steady as it echoed into the abyss, "if you want to show me something, just get on with it. Because I've already come to this point…and I am _not_ turning back."

His wish was granted almost instantly as the large chamber was suddenly bathed in white lights, which caused him to blink several times now that the process of adjusting to the dark had been interrupted and his eyes now had to abruptly do the opposite. Regardless, Tails now got to see what exactly Robotnik had in store for him in this place.

In the center of the chamber, now revealed to have a roughly cylindrical shape and seemed big enough to swallow a small house, stood two blocky bipedal robots, some fifteen feet tall with arm cannons, while also covered entirely in shiny gray sheets of armor. Same stuff, bigger size, Tails thought almost dismissively as he prepared to rev up towards them…but it was everything else in this room that made him pause.

Holding his battle stance but not moving, the fox was bewildered to see some sort of mezzanine, also about fifteen feet above the floor, which ran around the entire chamber, enclosed in darkly tinted glass windows that reached the ceiling with their outer surfaces angled downwards, not unlike luxury boxes in a stadium. Or an arena. The latter of which this place eerily resembled.

Something wasn't right here, but Tails was interrupted before he could think of any questions, as their answers were already coming right to him. "Why, hello there, Tails," a booming male voice came from what seemed every direction, without any apparent source besides possibly hidden speakers. "How nice to finally see you again! Quite a change you've undergone too, haven't you? More spunk now."

Eggman sounded just as sadistically gleeful as Tails remembered, not fooled by his mock politeness, though on some level it sounded like the mad scientist was genuinely impressed that he had just breached his outer perimeter defenses so effortlessly. "Enough, Eggman!" the fox shouted in reply, even as uncertainty began to pile up inside him, "what exactly are you planning this time?"

"Oh ho ho, I'm so very glad that you asked!" From below, Tails finally noticed, through the tinting, that Eggman was in fact in the box directly in front and above him, seated in some sort of throne with the biggest, smuggest smirk he could possibly manage. "You may have noticed that there are two robots ahead of you. Now, you could just trash them just like you did to all those buckets and bolts outside, but…I advise you to take a closer look at them again. Here, let me help you."

The two robots in front popped their heads open, revealing that they were, in fact, not robots at all, but mechs that had a human pilot in them each, as their heads were visibly sticking out of the bodies. Bad enough, but Tails also noticed from their expressions that they actually looked much more nervous than he was, even reluctant. It was clear they were here against their will.

"I've been working on a project in the last three months," Eggman began saying, "to improve the efficiency of my creations by stuffing the prisoners I've captured into their cockpits and forcing them to fight for me. Hasn't been easy – lost quite a few test subjects in the process - but the results of a mech who has the firepower and armor of my robots but the agility and hand-to-eye coordination of a human being…it's magnificent. But perhaps best of all…" He slowly stood up, dramatically stretching out his arms to both sides, and it was then that the purpose of the mezzanine, with dozens of also similarly terrified humans stuffed together on the seats, possibly even trapped there, was clear. "Everyone here gets to watch you go down, muhahahaha! You two, show him!"

On Eggman's cue, the mechs' heads, or more accurately visors, flipped back down, with only a split second beforehand showing them going wide-eyed with fear, before they both raised their repulsor cannons and fired at once.

Tails, who had already dealt with these weapons outside, dodged the bolts fairly easily, but instead of confidence he was now filled with deep worry at the revelations as he continued flipping over to the side. The addition of involuntary pilots inside these machines was a major complication, certainly one that Eggman intended aside from the improvements he'd stated, and made it impossible to just smash through them. At least, not directly.

Even with his training it was unlikely he had the stamina to outlast the mechs that were most likely powered by Chaos drives. He needed a way to disable the machines while not harming the pilots, but how? The first idea the fox thought of was to go for the legs. They had reverse knees and were somewhat slender and short, due to the need to keep the center of gravity low – it was hard to tell how agile those things would be, but nevertheless immobilizing the mechs would still be a good start.

Flipping back onto his feet, Tails stopped moving sideways and instead charged forwards towards one mech, ducking up and down to avoid more incoming bolts while aiming for the legs, ready to swipe them with his outstretched tails. To his surprise, however, the mechs shifted aside just quickly enough and at just the right moment for him to miss, before the one he wasn't aiming for spun around and delivered a fierce kick from behind.

"Ah!" Tails went stumbling onto the cold, steel floor, gritting his teeth. The attack hurt, and not to mention at a rather embarrassing spot, but he knew he couldn't let his shock at the mechs' agility overwhelm him, springing back up and leaping away just before two repulsor bolts scorched the spot he was on just half a second ago.

Could they really move that fast, or were they just lucky? It was risky, but the fox knew he had to test them more before making further plans. At the very least, he already could expect and avoid their counterattacks. As the mechs continued firing their repulsors, Tails flipped around while getting up close to them again, and as the distance closed to only a few feet, their arms abruptly deployed very familiar looking whips, which lashed at him intimidatingly with electric crackling. His heart skipped a few beats, but he'd fortunately already rolled aside far enough, having anticipated some sort of melee attack, even if it was his least favorite one.

Fifteen seconds passed as Tails repeated the procedure of getting close and retreating a few times, and by then he'd managed to get a feel for their combat behavior. They mainly stuck to their repulsors most of the time, but immediately switched to their whips if the target got within five feet of them, almost automatically. Naturally, they also did everything they could to constantly face Tails, and they were actually graceful enough that the fox still hadn't gotten a look at their backs yet. _Is there something back there? Some weakness?_ It seemed logical to think so, but he definitely had to get around these guys to confirm it.

Tails changed direction and tactics, now zooming around the mechs with his namesakes spinning madly, before hitting and bouncing off the walls, avoiding more shots along the way. He continued pinballing around the room a few times, similar to what Sonic would do, but then he added in his own twist. Shooting one quick glance to check that the mechs were indeed still facing him and still in the center of the room, he bounced perpendicular to the surface, launching himself into the air in a tight parabolic arc, just barely a few centimeters above their heads, before colliding with the opposite side and bouncing back as quickly as possible, straight at the back of one mech. The fox had quite a lot to juggle – other than hoping he was fast enough that the mechs hadn't turned around, he also had to make sure the impact wasn't too hard or too soft, a delicate balance that Knuckles' training hadn't quite covered.

The resulting crash was mostly metal crumpling up, but Tails realized that there was also what sounded like cracking circuit boards – he'd never forget that noise after what he did to his own gizmos that night. When he rebounded, he spun around to take a look, and saw the effect of his attack – the mech seemed to be incapacitated as it fell forwards, stopping its collapse with one arm. It seemed to be struggling to get up, perhaps indicating that the mech's power source or pilot's control chip, or perhaps both, was back there after all.

That back panel was something he'd have to examine, but not now, as the other mech was still up, and had already turned enough that is own back was out of sight. As if out of fury for what had happened to its comrade, it started firing both repulsors again, much more rapidly than before. While that didn't help much to hit the rapidly moving fox, the mech, through its human operator, was capable of something that Eggman's bots were generally inferior at – it actually led its targets, and though it hadn't been successful earlier, Tails currently was moving in a direction that it could easily predict, something he realized too late.

"Aah!" One of the bolts struck his abdomen from the side, and the literally burning pain made him fall. Due to his momentum, he ended up tumbling forwards across the floor, and even as he struggled through the wound to recover he knew he would slow down before speeding up again, and the pause would be just enough for the mech to fire one more accurate shot…

The sound that followed, unexpectedly, wasn't a repulsor blast, but another crash, one that sounded like a sizable, high speed projectile had just collided with the mech, like he himself did with the other. One that was very familiar, in fact. Tails knew of only one other person that could perform the action that made that noise, but his mind was in furious denial of that possibility. _No way…_

As Tails stumbled onto his feet, gripping his burning side with a cringe at the same time, he laid eyes on the two mechs again, but this time, they weren't alone. _He_ wasn't alone. The sight gave him a shock was just as big, if not bigger, than the one he felt when the repulsors hit him, and his breath had come to a standstill. What he heard next only punctuated it further. "Tails! You okay?"

Sonic the Hedgehog stepped off the knocked down mech as he rushed up to a stunned Tails, stopping before him with wide, concerned eyes. The fox, who had last seen his big brother in a coma on a hospital bed, was speechless to see him in such great shape. It looked like nothing had happened to him! _But…how…_ "S-S-Sonic…?"

"Hey, bud," Sonic began speaking, now more quietly and calmly but also very quickly, "I know this is really...sudden, that you didn't expect this…well, neither did I. Long story short, I visited Knuckles after you left and he healed me and told me about your training, and I trust he did a great job, but first, does it hurt?"

Tails didn't even know how he was supposed to feel now, much less respond. Especially since up to this point, he'd still been feeling sad for Sonic getting shot, worried for Sonic's condition, bitter for Sonic not stopping him from ruining everything…obviously the first two were obsolete now, while the latter was a hell of a lot easier when the hedgehog wasn't in front of him, caring for him, not even questioning his ability to fight now…_oh, who am I kidding, I've missed you so much!_

The pain and crisis forgotten for just one moment, Tails threw his arms around Sonic and grabbed him tightly. "I…I can't believe…you're…oh gosh…"

Sonic reciprocated the hug, simply standing there as his young friend let the waterworks out. "Yeah, I'm here now. It's okay. But we gotta do this later, okay? 'cause we still got work to do," he said before releasing him and turning around and facing the two mechs, who had just stood back up to face them threateningly, "and we're gonna do it together, alright?"

Seeing the confident smirk and glance meant that Tails' crying was short-lived, as he frantically wiped away the tears. "Y-yeah. And I'm okay. Really."

"Woo ho ho, now isn't this a lovely twist?" Eggman's voice boomed across the room again, causing the two to look back up at its source, "maybe I should have locked that door, but I think this is even more interesting! Nice of you to join in, Sonic…now, let the real show begin!"

**Author's Note: I've updated Chapter 7 **to make the training more difficult, **as well as this one as of Sept. 21. Again, thanks Phaenur for the feedback.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

"Dive!" Sonic yelled to Tails, rather unnecessarily, as both of them bolted aside in different directions to avoid the repulsor shots coming from the mechs, which were just as recovered and ready as they were.

His side still stinging from the burn, the fox remembered to tell Sonic something important. "Sonic, make sure to zigzag around! They can track you otherwise!" He sounded a bit more scared than he'd thought saying that – not surprising, he decided, considering he couldn't bring himself to imagine the consequences of Sonic getting shot again.

"Gotcha! What's the plan?" Sonic replied loudly over more blasts that he avoided by rapidly changing directions, following the advice he'd received from Tails just in time.

"Get behind them and hit their back panels! It'll stun them for long enough while I fiddle with them!" The fox had to look away from Sonic as he continued talking, as he was busy jumping and sliding in-between the blasts. They were a bit more predictable now, at least to him. Hopefully Sonic would get used to it fast too…

"Okay! Both of them at once?"

"Right! We gotta coordinate!" At this point, they were on opposite sides of the room, and each bot was still fully focused on their respective targets. But it occurred to Tails that this could be used to their advantage. "Sonic, I hit your mech, you hit mine!" It was, of course, a bit more complicated than that, but he couldn't exactly go into detail with Eggman listening, and he was pretty sure great minds thought alike.

"Alright! I'm getting a feel for how these guys work, so I think I know how!" Sonic sounded as confident as he remembered, though at the corner of his eye it looked like several bolts missed the hedgehog by as little as a centimeter, which made Tails' heart skip more than a few beats. There was no way he could let _that_ happen again!

Then there was one final memo Tails had to pass along, and he really hoped it didn't stun Sonic too much to slow him down. "Okay, but one more thing – don't hit too hard, okay? There are-there are people trapped inside these things! Real people!"

"W-what?" The hedgehog almost froze in place hearing that, and only the sheer bad memory of getting hit by those weapons again kept him leaping back and forth between the blasts. Nevertheless, he realized that this didn't change things too much – a slightly less powerful spindash was still a spindash. "A-alright, I know what to do!"

"G-great! One-eighty degrees, okay? Let's get this over with!" _Please!_

"Got it!" Sonic said, himself sounding a bit more tense than excited, as he flipped back onto his feet from a somersault, his eyes catching Tails on the other side of the room. As much as he usually enjoyed making a fool out of Eggman's bots, these were definitely far more agile than he was used to, and he bitterly remembered that it was a model less capable than this one that scored a hit on him before. Tails was right, he thought – they couldn't let this drag on.

Sonic began actually running again, following the same direction Tails was going, as both traveled along the curved wall. The shots were still trailing them, but from his brief experience with these bots so far, they were only going to be able to circle them for five more seconds before they got wise and shot ahead of them again, meaning they had to break their travel pattern before then.

_Two, three…_As Sonic performed the most nervous counting he'd ever done, he saw the perfect moment to strike, based on his and Tails' positions relative to the bots, with each that targeted one of them having their back to the other. The symmetry and timing was so good that Sonic couldn't resist a relieved grin before giving the cue. "Now!"

Intelligent as these machines were, relatively speaking, they still made the mistake of staying too close to the center of the room. Sonic and Tails jumped off the wall perpendicularly, just before the mechs could fire their predictive shots, blue and orange blur slamming into each of their backs.

As the machines keeled over, the duo scrambled to their feet again and approached their toppled opponents. Their backs showed some rather serious dents, though Tails was glad that the one Sonic hit wasn't too badly crushed. The first thing the fox thought of was to cripple the mechs' legs by smashing his tails down on them like hammers, bending them out of shape so that they wouldn't stand again. He and Sonic also made sure to tear out their weapons, though this one needed more caution, since they were attached to their arms, which contained the actual pilots' ones. Then it was time to check the pilots' conditions. Their visors were powered by servos, but with a strong enough pull he was still able to lift them back after his bare fingers found a groove around the neck just big enough to fit inside.

Getting a close look at the two pilots, which were an adult man and woman, naturally made Sonic stumble back in surprise, though the sight of the two appearing pale and hurt also unnerved Tails despite his prior knowledge. "Holy…damn you, Eggman," the hedgehog growled silently, glaring at where the mad scientist was sitting, even though at that angle the window was opaque. Eggman was staying unusually silent, though, which made Sonic wonder if he was up to something.

"Please…" the man whispered weakly, giving Tails an equally weak but desperate glance, "get us out…couldn't control…ourselves…will…self-destruct…"

That was when the beeping started, and it made every strand of his fur stiffen. _Crap._ "I…I'm on it!" he said, more loudly and shrilly than he'd intended, revealing what he really felt despite trying to sound assuring, "I'll get you out of there!" Immediately he tore off the damaged back panel and tossed it aside, heart racing with trepidation, but at the same time, hope. Here was his chance to really save people now. After so long, he finally could-

Tails' train of thought came to a screeching halt as he realized it. It wasn't immediate, but came after seconds of observation, each of which made the sudden revelation more and more awful as the message from his eyes forced its way to his mind, and the moment it did, all of his hope simply shriveled up and died.

Namely, that he simply didn't know what he was looking at. Worse, he should have known what he was looking at, due to its vague familiarity, but just _didn't_ - no longer did.

He was staring at a mess of wires and circuits, technical parts that he _knew_ had seen before in his own inventions – but three months of living on an isolated island without so much as a telephone had made him forget. He recognized the components, but just couldn't remember which was which, or which did what…_where's the self-destruct mechanism? The bomb? Or power cable? _Please_!_

"…ails? Tails!" Only when he heard Sonic calling out for him in panic did he also hear the beeping now become much more rapid. "Come on!" the hedgehog cried as he grabbed his, "we gotta _move_!"

Sonic pushed his feet against the ground as forcefully as possible and leapt away from the downed mechs, as much as it pained him to leave those two pilots. He aimed straight for Eggman's window, although since he was dragging along a screaming Tails, he couldn't do it in spindash mode, which was probably going to hurt, but hopefully still less than the shrapnel once they were inside. Plus, at least he could then confront Eggman and-

His muzzle landed on the reinforced, bulletproof glass with a hard, painful smack. It would have been rather comical, actually, though only Eggman actually thought so as he started laughing like a creepy impersonation of Santa Claus again, not just at the cartoon-like occurrence but also his own follow-up early Christmas present.

The duo fell to the ground with a thud just as the beeping became steady. Tails, who also got a face full of window and was knocked back into his senses, realized what was going to happen. Noticing that Sonic was still stunned – he'd been in a coma not too long ago, after all – the fox was able to put his grief for the man and woman aside for just one moment before doing the only other thing that came to mind.

The self-destruct mechanisms of the mechs activated, and the resulting explosion was similar to that of standard fragmentation grenades – not too big, but deadly enough in a room of this size, especially with the shrapnel it now sent flying around. Ignoring the ringing in his ears from the blast, Tails pushed Sonic aside all the way to the wall, as far away as he possibly could, before wrapping both his arms and namesakes around the hedgehog, and shutting his eyes.

Instantly he felt his back getting stabbed by multiple bits of shrapnel, complementing his earlier burn, which made him cry out loudly. The pain wasn't just physical, of course. He knew he had failed to save the man and woman just like he'd failed to save those – _these, right _here – people as three months ago, except this time it was because of neglecting his engineering knowledge, not his fighting ability, which wasn't going to help save the day here. Through the agony, he took solace in one difference between then and now – at least he'd be the one paying for his mistake here, not Sonic…

Having expected to fall unconscious or even into a coma, Tails was surprised that, several seconds later, after the ringing had stopped, he could still open his eyes, still breathe...still hurt. Apparently the blast radius hadn't been that large after all. Nevertheless, with the threat gone – not to say eliminated – he let go of the hedgehog and faced away, rolling over to his non-injured side. His adrenaline was beginning to recede, and the pain came in full force, keeping on the floor as he moaned softly.

"Tails?" he heard Sonic behind him ask quietly, gently too, who had gotten back up. "Are you-oh man…"

"Sonic…" The tears were flowing yet again. He had no will to fight them. No reason to. "They…I…they…"

"I-I know," Sonic whispered sadly as he knelt down beside his younger brother. "We can…can still save the others though," he said, with only the barest sliver of hope, "just gotta-"

A loud thud was heard behind them, and just as Sonic turned to look, the third mech that had just dropped in from the ceiling was already firing its repulsor straight at the two of them. The hedgehog would have been impressed by just how fast this ambush happened, but his only concern was for his wounded friend on the ground, who was right in the way of the incoming bolt. "No!" he shouted, scrambling to push Tails away in what was a tragically familiar scene…

"No!" Tails was now also alert enough to realize, in horror, that the _same damn thing_ was going to happen all over again! "No, Sonic, _no_!"

His determination to prevent the soul-crushing nightmare from repeating itself was so strong that his strength abruptly recovered, and he instinctively used it to grab Sonic by his arms to flip him over. It worked, but not all the way. The bolt that almost struck his big head again instead hit one of his back quills – enough to make the hedgehog yelp in pain as he landed on exactly that, but not fatal.

It was, however, still enough trigger something else. The double whammy of his failure to save the two humans and Sonic almost getting killed again had finally exhausted the last of the fox's patience. He'd tried being cautious, being careful, but he had _enough_ of holding back. In his fury, he flipped back up and charged all the way up to the mech in a zigzag pattern to avoid all of its shots at a speed not even he imagined was possible, all while ignoring his hurting body, and before it even had a chance to switch to its electric whips Tails had already sliced both weapons off with his namesakes at maximum sharpness. "God _damn_ you!"

The next thing he knew, all six of his limbs were viciously pounding away at the mech, utterly crumpling and tearing up the armor like it were an oversized toy model, without caring that there was still someone inside. "You almost killed Sonic!" he screamed as he reached around the back, punched through the panel and tore out every component he could see,_ "again_!"

As what remained of the machine collapsed, Tails turned his wrath to the ceiling, which he angrily suspected was hiding even more mechs waiting to drop in. One quick ascent, a crash, several crashes, some ceiling debris and several inactive mechs falling and crashing onto the ground later proved that he was right. "You killed those two people!"

Then he set his eyes on the one responsible for all of this, leaping up again in flight and smashing into the window with his spinning tails. The glass still held steady, but it was visibly cracking, and the fox used his momentum to bounce back and forth from across the room to continue hammering it. "And…I…am…" he said, spitting out one word each time he impacted the window, "going…to…"

Finally the window gave way, and Tails came crashing through the glass, a few shards of which cut him up some more, not that he noticed. "…_kill you!_"

His spinning tails of doom, which were supposed to slice up the overweight mad scientist, instead found only thin air. As he crashed into the ground still full of shattered glass, he looked up and saw why. Unsurprisingly, having seen what was coming from the practically rabid fox, Eggman had retreated into the elevator behind the thick steel door that led to this control room, which still had a small window for him to show his now less amused mug.

Stumbling back up to his feet – and feeling very glad he still had his shoes – Tails stepped over to the door and, rather than bothering to try the handle, pinned his spinning tails on them sideways like a saw, while shooting Eggman the nastiest, most murderous scowl he could muster. "I'm so sick of your bullcrap, Eggman!" he shouted, voice now hoarse from his earlier screaming while tears flew down his muzzle, "you kidnapped all these people, stuffed them into mechs, made sure they'd die, killed Sonic once, tried to kill Sonic again…I'm gonna…I'm gonna crack you open, you rotten egg! I'm gonna crack you open…crack you open…"

The door was thick enough that Tails' attempt to cut it open didn't faze Eggman as he simply stood there, arms crossed and grinning slightly at the fox's incoherent rambling and death threats. "My dear vulpine rival genius," he started speaking, actually sounding vaguely sympathetic while shaking his head, "or should I say, _former_ genius. I thought I'd enjoy all this, and in a way, I still did…but this is just sad. Sure, I did all those horrible things you said I did. No point denying it. But make no mistake, Tails…" He pressed his face against the glass to be able to see the fox, and vice versa, showing his menacing grin as he continued, "I'm not the one who made you forget all about exercise while you were obsessed with machines. I'm not the one who made you forget all about simple electronics while you were obsessed with physical training. And lastly, I'm not the one who made you kill that man lying down there now. Those were all _your_ decisions."

The fox was still frantically trying to cut down the door, but was slowing down, mainly because he was getting tired, because his wounds were stinging badly, but most all, because the doctor's words _hurt_. A few seconds later, he stopped trying altogether and simply slid down to his knees, head against the cold steel surface. It was pointless. The most he could do was to call Eggman out on his exercise comment, but it would be a pathetic retort at best against the harsh truth he'd just laid out. He simply lay there silently, sniffing and staring at the broken glass on the ground, which almost felt less broken than he was.

"Anyway, this has been fun, but since you've trashed my mech deployment line, it's time for me to get out of here," Eggman then said as he turned away, "at least I know my mech plan really works now. Thanks for testing them for me, by the way. Shame I can't bring these prisoners with me, so you can have them…"

He took out his PDA from his coat and pressed something on it, and soon, klaxons and red lights suddenly filled up the whole room, snapping Tails out of daze. "…if you can get them out of here within the next three minutes, that is! Hohohohoho! Until next time!"

Before the fox could respond in any way, Eggman's elevator had already begun its descent to some underground lair. There were no buttons on the wall outside to call it, and trying to pry the door open had proven futile.

_Eggman isn't important now_, he felt a voice inside say, _you can go after him another time. Save these people. You've screwed up, but it's the least you can do._

Surprised that such a rational, well-reasoned instruction could still be produced from his frazzled mind, Tails slowly got back up, and turned around just in time to see a familiar blue blur pop up by the broken window. "Tails? What happened?" Sonic asked, gently but worrisomely, "does the alarm mean what I think it means?"

"I…Eggman got away," the fox told him flatly, not daring to make eye contact or willing to go into detail, "and, uh, yeah, we got three minutes to get these people out of here."

Sonic only rolled his eyes in response. "Great, I knew it," he said, before realizing from Tails' crumpled expression that it could be taken the wrong way, and added, "I-I mean, about Eggman, not you! That doesn't matter now. And don't worry about me, I'm fine," he added as he looked at his singed quill, before realizing how much difference it would have made if he had managed to say that _before_ Tails went berserk. Then again, it had hurt a lot when he was first hit, and considering how the fox reacted even before that happened...

The hedgehog shook his head. Emotional issues had to be left until later. "Alright, now let's just…" He frowned as he glanced around at the arena's mezzanine, which seemed to have no real access point. "Where the heck's the entrance to this thing?"

Tails also looked in every direction for an answer, before settling on something that seemed to provide it. "Sonic, wait…" He went over to the control console that Eggman had been presiding over earlier. It had a rather large amount of buttons considering how small this base seemed to be, but it was the button to the far right labeled 'seat access' that interested him. Despite his initial hesitation, the alarms reminded him that time was short, and he pushed it. At the very least, he hoped it could open up a door or something.

It seemed to have no effect at first, but then there was the sound of gears grinding, still audible over the alarms, and the floor of the whole mezzanine, excluding the control room itself, slowly descended to the ground. The entire thing, as it turned out, was an elevator itself. As strange as that was, Tails guessed that from a design perspective it did appear be the easiest way to get all those people in there.

_Speaking of people_…it was only now that the prisoners were visible, all of them bounded to chairs that look like the kind found on roller coaster cars, except it was clear from their nervous struggling and screams that their restraints could only be unlocked externally. _Wait, externally_…he looked through the console again for hopefully some more solutions, and noticed a button labeled 'restraints', also to the right. _Well, that's convenient_. When he pushed it, he caused the bars holding them down on their chests to lift upwards, and even from here he could see just how relieved they were as they jumped out, and for the first time since coming here, he felt the same.

But it was too early for that yet. The duo dropped down from the control room – how exactly Eggman got himself up there from this chamber was unclear – to the floor, whereupon Tails suddenly felt very uncomfortable about getting so close to the group they'd just freed. Sure, he'd released them, but he wasn't sure if it made up for all his screw-ups before that, considering they had all witnessed it.

"Alright, guys, stay calm!" Sonic said loudly to the crowd, whose joy at being released had been rapidly replaced by the ominous alarms, "we're gonna get you out of here! Just gotta-"

"You murdered him!" A woman loudly screamed, the abruptness of which surprised Sonic into silence, "you killed my husband!"

Tails, for his part, simply stepped back from the crowd slowly. He didn't dare to look up at the crowd or how they were looking at him now. He knew exactly what the woman was talking about, and that he'd killed the man piloting the third mech for no justifiable reason beyond uncontrolled rage. He had no excuses to offer.

As the fox simply stood there in regret, the woman rushed out and gave him a hard slap. It had negligible impact compared to the effects of Eggman's weapons, yet was the one that hurt far more. "Hey!" Sonic cried out as he zoomed over to Tails' side and put his arm protectively around his neck. He wanted to add something more in response, but the woman had stated the truth about what his brother had done so bluntly that he just couldn't.

"What the hell?" some others chimed in angrily, "he just saved us!"

"He murdered my David in cold blood! Eggman didn't even force him to!" By this point the woman had rushed back to tearfully cradle the remains of the mech on the floor, whose visor had fallen off to reveal the lifeless form of the man trapped inside. Tails wasn't looking at that though, and it wasn't just because the sight would utterly break him – the woman's words already did. _Great job, you've made someone you're supposed to save say the same thing to you that Eggman did_.

"I'm sorry for your loss, and I know Tails lost control there, but he was going to die anyway," another man responded, "not if that self-destruct bomb was too complicated for Tails to dismantle." Ironically, the man's attempt to defend the fox only made him feel worse, considering it was simply swapping out one of his mistakes for another. One that could still doom them all, if that electronic keypad panel he was glancing at next to the entrance on the wall was any indication…

"Easy for you to say, it wasn't your family who died!" Yet another man, about the same age as the woman, shouted back.

As more and more arguments broke out within the space of a few seconds, Sonic saw how miserable it was making Tails and wasting precious time, and decided that it was enough. He was about to intervene when another voice did. "Wait, he's still alive!"

The silence was immediate as the crowd, including Sonic and a suddenly alert Tails, turned to the fallen mech. The man inside had stirred and slowly woke up, but was still weak. "What…what's going on?" he asked quietly, struggling against the armor around him before continuing, "I can't…get out of this thing…"

"Get him out of there!" The same woman who had slapped Tails cried out, but with a touch of relief rather than in complete anguish, "pry this thing open!"

Sonic and Tails were stunned by the news, but pleasantly for once, at least relatively speaking. "Alright, bud," the hedgehog said to him quietly, "I'll go help him out. Just do your thing, okay?"

"O...okay," Tails replied with a nod, sounding slightly more energetic now that he knew he wasn't a killer, even though he was still worried about the man's condition. And that aside, he still had one more problem. _I don't know if this is my thing anymore,_ he thought, not just cynical but fearful. Everyone's lives were at stake here, and if he failed one more time, everyone here, including Sonic and himself, were dead. His own death he honestly didn't mind so much anymore, but Sonic dying yet again for real was absolutely unacceptable.

That, more than anything, was what drove him to pry the keypad panel off the wall, revealing the circuits behind. _At least I still know how to do that_. It wasn't that hard. All he had to do was hack the keypad or reset the combination, something he'd done before. _I've done this before. I've done this before. I've done this before…_

Which meant pretty much nothing here. He was still staring at a mess of wires and circuits that he didn't understand, and his heart was racing faster and faster while his mind simply stood still. "Tails?" Sonic had returned, actually looking a bit hopeful. "Guy's out of the mech suit, wasn't so hard considering how badly you cracked it. He'll be fine. How's it coming?"

The fox turned to Sonic with a look of despair that pretty much beat all others, including all of his previous ones. "I…" He swallowed, before admitting it – it wasn't going to hurt much more anyway. "…I don't know how, Sonic," he said extremely quietly, hoping nobody else could hear him, "I can't do it."

To say that Sonic was flabbergasted was an understatement. "What…?" The only good news was that he was thinking as fast as he ran, and quickly moved on to the next step despite this twist. "Hey! Anyone here know how to hack a keypad lock?" he called out to the crowd with barely concealed hesitation, hoping to the Emeralds that there was at least one security or engineering expert here, as much as it pained him to learn that his friend wasn't one anymore.

"God damn it!" A large, burly man, almost the size of Eggman himself, stepped forward, looking displeased. "I'm a security engineer! If you can't do it, let me!"

Letting out a huge sigh of relief, Sonic and Tails stepped aside to allow the guy to handle the keypad panel. After just two seconds of observation he gave an unimpressed 'hmph' and got to work, his fingers expertly pulling out wires and replugging them into different positions, among other procedures. Watching it only made Tails feel even more ashamed.

And as if that weren't enough, the man started talking. "I thought you knew how to do this, Tails," he said with evident surprise and disappointment, "This is simple stuff. Can't believe Egg-"

"Hey," Sonic cut in gently, but with a rather nasty glare, "I appreciate what you're doing, but…just shut up, okay?"

The man rolled his eyes. "Right." A scant few seconds later, though, the massive door began sliding open, to the joyful cry of many. "Alright people!" he called out, "let's haul ass!"

The entire crowd rushed through the dark corridor, some carrying the man they'd pried out of the mech, with Sonic and Tails in front. Fortunately, the keypad had opened the doors on both sides, and the exit was illuminated by the polar sunlight. The duo weren't running at their usual speeds, not just to make sure the people were keeping up, but also because Sonic had to personally escort Tails and practically push him forwards, due to how unresponsive and blank the fox was now.

Barely after the last of the group got out and stepped onto the ice was there a series of explosions that rocked the ground beneath everyone's feet, causing some surprised cries as well as the corridor they had just passed through to cave in, throwing out a huge amount of dust and smoke that everyone had to look away from. It settled rather quickly though, and once the base's implosion came to a stop, a jarring but welcome silence followed.

Other than some coughing, as far as Sonic could see, nobody was harmed from the blasts themselves. They were already shivering from the cold, but quickly gathered around the fires of the still burning robot carcasses to keep themselves up. Aside from that, he also noticed in the distant sea what seemed like a naval fleet. The military apparently had followed him and Tails here in the hopes of picking up their citizens, which Sonic supposed was an indication of a measure of trust they still had in them. In that case, he was glad that they'd managed to deliver. _For the most part_.

"Hey guys!" Sonic turned to see a group of freed prisoners who had come up to them. "Thanks for rescuing us. We really owe you," a young woman said.

"Yeah, you're the best!" another man said, "I know things didn't go that smoothly, but most of us still got out, at least, thanks to you."

Considering all the chaos that had occurred inside the base, Sonic had to admit he was pleasantly surprised to receive such a warm reception. "No problem, guys," he simply said with a weak smile, though after quickly glancing at the still silent fox, who had silently turned away, it disappeared. "I'd…like a moment alone, though, if you don't mind."

"Okay. Let's go get some warmth, guys. It's freezing."

Sonic went over and sat down on the mound of ice next to Tails, who was glancing down at the white surface with his namesakes wrapped around himself, not just for warmth but emotional comfort. Not that it helped much.

And knowing that talking to him so soon after the whole crisis had ended wouldn't help either, Sonic simply brought him into his lap wordlessly, gently stroking his head, while waiting for the navy ships and helicopters to arrive and pick everyone up before they themselves took off in the Tornado.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Hours later, the navy had managed to bring everyone back from Eggman's northern base back home to Station Square. The city that had been hit by Eggman's EMP attack three months ago since had most of its power and electrical infrastructure restored, though much work remained to be completed. For this reason, those that needed further medical attention were diverted to nearby Central City Hospital, including Sonic and Tails, who had only been there recently. Shortly after their arrival, they had been applauded for their actions by various public officials and crowds, particularly the families of the freed prisoners, but the hedgehog had too much else on his mind to welcome all the lavish praise. He'd impatiently given them just enough of the usual 'aw shucks' reactions to get them off his back before coming over to Tails' ward to spend time alone with him in peace.

When he arrived, Tails was there on the bed, his torso wrapped up in bandages, staring blankly at nothing in particular. He had no visible reaction upon seeing Sonic come in. The doctor – the same bear who had treated him and Sonic three months ago, coincidentally enough – although initially surprised that the hedgehog seemed so much healthier that he'd last seen him, had stated that their injuries weren't too serious for a change and would heal up soon.

Of course, for Tails, it was clear that would only apply to his physical wounds. The ones he felt inside were likely to take far longer, if they ever healed at all. The doctor had already said something about getting a psychiatrist, but Sonic knew his brother. Knew what he was like. Suffering not one, but two personal failures of this scale so soon after one another…how could any stranger know how to fix the damage _that_ caused? Could he himself even do it?

Sonic pulled up a plastic chair next to Tails' bed and sat down, careful not to touch his burnt quill against it. Not for the first time, he sighed at the apparently catatonic fox. They had said nothing to each other during their trip back here on the Tornado, and although Sonic knew silence and solitude was better for Tails in the short term, he couldn't bear to be far from him, not at this time. And seeing his brother like this was painful, damn it.

They had to talk, sooner or later. They were going to be here the whole day. Sonic decided it had to come now, even if slowly. "Tails…you hear me, buddy?" he whispered to his friend, placing a hand over his shoulder. He didn't expect any miracles, but hopefully he could get Tails to at least say something or do something, even if it was just crying or self-blaming. Better than being the zombie he was right now. "Sorry I wasn't here earlier, but those reporters and politicians kept pulling me back. I had to make sure they wouldn't pester us anymore, at least for now."

Still no reaction. At least, not immediately. Maybe within a minute or two, Sonic assured himself, and just waited, fingers twirling eagerly as he did so.

But when five minutes went by with no change, the hedgehog couldn't help but sink deeper into the chair, while his heart seemingly did the same inside him. The lack of responses wouldn't be so bad if it didn't look like, judging from Tails' empty eyes, he was playing back the same nightmares, the same failures, in his head over and over again, so much so that it had numbed him.

Sonic pulled the chair up closer to the bed. "Tails…please," he spoke again, now sounding considerably less composed. It seemed somewhat ironic, he thought, that his own eyes were burning up before Tails' were. "Tails…I know it's disturbing you bad…so just…tell me, okay? Please." He sniffed once, probably the first of many times. "Because I…I can't bear seeing you…like this, okay? Just…cry, shout…blame me, even, I don't care. Just…please…" He trailed off there as he shut his eyes, suddenly not knowing of how to proceed, or if he even should. He was scared of the possibility of Tails taking his words to mean he was only talking to him because he cared for his how his own emotions were affected more than the fox's, when nothing could be further from the truth.

Then, an additional agonizing minute later, there finally was something. "W…what do I…do now?" It was barely audible, but the whisper had definitely come from Tails, and Sonic promptly perked up.

"Y…yeah, bud?" he asked very gently, trying not to sniff again. He had probably heard correctly, but had to make sure, and plus, it was also a way to hopefully make Tails speak more by elaborating.

"…Sonic," Tails weakly called out, slightly more loudly now, and even slowly turned to face the hedgehog with a frown. The little fox's look of despair was saddening, but was still an improvement over the zombie face earlier. Heck, making an actual zombie face would be an improvement. "What…do I do now?"

So he had heard correctly. "What do you mean, bud?" It was a genuine question, not just a way to get Tails to talk more.

"I…well…" His face crumpled up, and it was his time to tear up, yet again. "I poured…so much effort into my…plane and gadgets…but it didn't help out, and…only almost got you killed, and all those people…abducted. So I…tried fixing that by training…with Knuckles, for three months. But…" He swallowed hard. "…I ended up forgetting that my…tech skills…would actually be useful too. And…and…" The sobs were really coming now, but it seemed that Tails was determined to finish his confession, no matter how painful this part was. "…I got those two people killed, and almost killed a third, and let Eggman get away…because all I knew was brute force."

By then Sonic decided to simply just get up and wrap his arms around the kid, who proceeded to bury his face into his chest again. "I'm…I'm so sorry, Sonic," he tried to say, but it had all blurred into blubbering, "I just…I don't know…what to do…anymore…what if…my next step…just screws up again, and…"

Sonic continued to cradle him, but was beginning to doubt how well this would go. He had no idea what to say, and he feared it would grow out of his control as this went on. He sure as hell couldn't claim to have the answers to Tails' problems, and if he weren't careful with his suggestions this whole 'speak your mind' plan was going to fall apart.

This was probably why the hedgehog was caught off-guard when he heard Tails' next few words. "I…blew up our house for…nothing…"

"W-huh? What do you mean?" Even without all that self-doubt, Sonic probably could only have reacted with confusion anyway. "E-Eggman's the one that blew up our house."

"Knuckles…didn't tell you?" There was actual surprise in his voice for once, before it returned to something even more morose than before. "It wasn't Eggman, Sonic…it was me." Tails pulled away from Sonic, showing his bloodshot eyes. If Sonic hadn't known already, he was going to confess it alright, regardless of the consequences, and he was already expecting a less than tender reaction. Not that he deserved one, he thought. "I…poured jet fuel all over it…that day…and then blew up…the Tornado's munitions. 'cause I thought…I couldn't be distracted by…tech anymore, and because…because I was…" It was hard to imagine how his face could get any more crooked. "…I was mad at you, Sonic. For not…stopping me from…joining."

Sonic the Hedgehog stood there, now at an even greater loss of words than a minute ago, if that were even possible. He was so sure that it had been Eggman who'd done it…but looking back, maybe there had been signs. Like the way Tails had run off from this hospital in tears and just vanishing, and the explosions occurring around the same timeframe, according to what he'd been told after he'd woken up. Or the fact that Eggman had pretty much never used stealth, ever, and that there had been no other planes detected near that area that night, not after the attack he'd launched on the city. But why hadn't Knuckles told him?

As Sonic was stuck there trying to formulate a response, Tails flipped over to the other side, paying no heed to the pain in his back. "It's your turn, Sonic," he said, shutting his eyes tight. "To be…mad at me. I…deserve it. Deserve worse."

No further conversation occurred for a full minute, nor were there other vocalizations apart from sobbing. Tails was certain that Sonic would get mad at him now, would walk away from him, would leave him, possibly for a long time, and he would have nobody to share his suffering with, because he had no right to do so. Sonic was too good a brother for him to have after all he'd done. He'd have to sort it all out in isolation, if he ever managed to figure out how…

"Oh, Tails," Sonic said with what was likely his strongest sigh of the day, his voice now coming from the other side of the bed, "you…you silly kid. C'mon, it's…okay."

Tails' eyes promptly sprang open, his sobbing interrupted. That was absolutely not what he'd expected, and he actually recoiled back from seeing Sonic before him again. More specifically, a Sonic without any hint of anger, just disappointment. "You're…you're not…mad at me?" he managed to ask after taking in a deep breath, though he was still trembling slightly from his sniffing.

"No, Tails, I'm not," Sonic told him as he and Tails locked eyes, wanting to make it very clear. "I…I know it's gonna be a bit inconvenient, but I…I don't blame you for it. Really. Because, well, at the end of the day…it's just a house. You're here now, and that's the only thing that matters to me."

The fox sniffed again before staring back at Sonic in disbelief. "But…it…it was our home."

"It's…where we stayed, yeah." Sonic wasn't sure how this confidence had suddenly come to him – maybe the way Tails had obviously tried to get him to leave, when it was the very opposite of what he'd wanted, had spurred him even more into staying and setting the record straight with him. Regardless, he welcomed it, and intended to get the best out of it. "But the truth is…you're my real home, Tails. I know it probably sounds really corny, coming from me, but…I'd feel better with you anywhere than alone in some fancy house, any day." He stepped closer to the fox. "And if you thought you'd drive me away by saying that, well…" A small smile appeared on his peach muzzle, with even a hint of his usual smirk there. "…you're not getting rid of me that easily."

While Tails didn't return the smile, he at least did seem to calm down a little. He glanced downwards at his bandaged body, shades of red appearing on his cheeks after Sonic's comments sank in. "I…I guess, Sonic."

"And, actually, Tails…" Sonic looked away for just one moment. "We've been getting public donations to rebuild our house. Last I checked, it was worth five million dollars."

"R-really?" This was another twist the fox didn't see coming, although it didn't take long before he slumped in his bed as his mind came up with a way to deflate it. "But…it must be mostly because of you…rather than me." Another tear came rolling down.

"Nah…not really," Sonic quickly replied, "they gave you credit too. I mean, yeah, nobody's happy over, uh, well…those other things that happened in the base, but they mostly blame Eggman, not you."

Tails brought his namesakes out in front of him to hug them tightly again. "But…that's the easy way out," he whispered, shaking his head and voice breaking up again, "those that blame me…they're right, Sonic. If it was my fault…that I failed to save you and others three months ago, then…this is my fault too. My…responsibility."

Again Sonic was back to hugging him tightly. While Tails' logic did make sense, it seemed more than a little unfair to him. Fortunately, the hedgehog had one more card left to play. "Hey, it's okay," he began, "you know, when I said I don't blame you, I meant it. I…I know what it feels like. I've felt it. You wanna hear why?"

After sniffing a few times, the small fox pulled back, big eyes still wet but also filled with curiosity.

"After I woke up a few days ago, I felt…weak all over, weaker than I'd ever been in my life. I had one heck of a time convincing the doctors to let me out. Had to do all sorts of tests before I could leave. But even after that, while flying our old Tornado…I was worried I wouldn't perform well, especially in the freezing weather up there. I mean, I'd been in bed for three months, I'd wasted away. I felt, you know, vulnerable. And…" He closed his eyes regretfully. He hadn't mentioned anything about almost dying while trying to fly the Tornado, but that wasn't important here. "I was right."

Tails bent his neck slightly, brows raised. "W…what do you mean?"

"The fight with the third mech. I mean, you were hurt, and that mech came out of nowhere and started shooting…I wanted to just throw you out of the way, before running around to knock the mech out, but…I don't know, I guess I suddenly felt like my arms weren't up to the job, you know what I mean? Like I could barely lift or drag you. Or maybe I was wrong, and that I actually would have been able to do it…which is even worse, honestly. So I…I did the only thing I could think of, again."

The fox was sitting up straight as he continued listening, fully intrigued. He had the urge to stop Sonic from trying to take the blame away from him, but had an even stronger urge to hear his brother out too, which even he found surprising. Maybe it was because he'd always listened to his brother, and always would.

Sonic sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time since they'd come back. "I guess what I mean, Tails, is that…we're both in this together. I know you want to take responsibility for this, and, well, I won't stop you, or try to convince you it's not your fault. But I gotta do something about it too. In a way, you're still better off than me, since at least you know exactly what you gotta do, but me? I'm still trying to figure it out. We've screwed up, and I know how much it hurts, so much that it makes you want to burn your own house down, because you think going back to it will cause other problems. But I figure that as long as we're together, we'll prevent each other from becoming that destructive, while also making sure we never make the same mistakes again. You…you get what I mean, bud?"

Tails, amazed by what he'd heard, nodded. He fully understood what Sonic was saying. In a way, the fox honestly still didn't fully buy it – he was pretty sure that this mutual support was really going to go more often in one way. But more honestly, he found that he didn't mind. "Y-yeah, I…I understand," he answered, before looking downwards shamefully again, albeit for a different reason this time. "I…I'm sorry for being so self-centered, Sonic," he went on, voice again teetering on the edge, "sorry for trying to drive you away. It was…selfish of me. I never thought that…it had affected you too."

"It's alright." Sonic placed his arm around the fox's neck, smiling again. "I know it's tempting to isolate yourself after this kind of thing, and, well, maybe it does work sometimes. But let's just try it this way first, okay?"

"O-okay." Tails rubbed his eyes before looking up again with a very much improved expression, even if he still wasn't smiling yet. "What do you have in mind for this…mutual support, though?"

"Well, I was thinking that I can make sure you have a healthier balance between your exercising and tinkering sessions. We could establish a schedule, you know, and I make sure you follow it, at least until you're used to it. What do you say?"

"Sure thing, Sonic," the fox replied, immediately finding it to be a great idea. Perhaps he really had to rely on someone else to make sure he didn't neglect one skill in favor of another rather than trusting himself to do it alone, which would be something else he'd also have to learn down the line, but first thing's first. It was only the results themselves, not the way to get to them that mattered to him, at least for now. "In return, though…could I…teach you how to swim?"

The question that came out of nowhere had Sonic stand there with a raised brow, before bursting out in laughter. "Oh, man…good one, Tails!" he said between fits of snickering. He quickly looked back at the fox, suddenly worried that his reaction could be taken as refusal, but found that he needn't have to, for Tails was, for the first time since they'd reunited, smiling too. "Man…but seriously, actually, I could try that eventually," Sonic continued after regaining himself, more serious now, "it's only fair. Although, I like to think that helping you out by itself is what would help me out too, really. Uh, not saying that as an excuse to get out, though. I swear."

"Sure it isn't," Tails simply replied, his smile seemingly growing, and with it, Sonic's relief too.

Giving what was hopefully his last sigh – at least it's a happy one – he moved back to get a better look at the fox's drying eyes. "It's…it's great to see you smile again, bud."

"Well…I've been crying a lot lately, haven't I?" Tails blushed again as he admitted.

Another snicker. "Yeah…and I've been sighing way too many times, too, heh. Anyway, uh, Tails…they're gonna rebuild our house soon. Shouldn't take too long, we can just live out at our storage with the old Tornado until it's done. Though speaking of Tornados, well, the jet's something you'll have to rebuild yourself again, bud, along with your gadgets. If you want, I mean."

Yet another blush. "Yeah," Tails replied as he brushed his bangs aside, "I'll have to. But don't worry, Sonic. I'll learn everything back and rebuild them, but I won't forget to go outside. I promise." The fox held out his bare hand to Sonic eagerly.

The hedgehog grabbed the hand with a slap, holding it tightly, that cool, confident grin there once more. "Alright. I trust you, bud."

"And I trust you too, Sonic."

* * *

><p>Three weeks later, Sonic and Tails were in their newly rebuilt house, virtually identical as the previous one, right down to the same red roof tiles and types of rooms, on the same location on the hill. The main difference, of course, was that it wasn't cluttered up by any of Tails' old inventions and notes, making it jarringly empty and spotless.<p>

Something Tails vowed to fix. Having finished admiring their new home, the fox was back in the same bedroom he shared with Sonic, deeply engrossed in an aerodynamic engineering tome at his desk, after coming off from reading up on electronic and mechanical engineering while staying at their storage. He'd recalled his knowledge quickly, though it would still be a ways off before he could start rebuilding the fighter jet and other gizmos again, not to mention performing repairs for others to earn money.

He flipped through the pages quickly, unhindered by the snug fit of his new gloves. It had taken a while to get used to them again, but in the end he discovered he'd missed the protection and comfort they offered to his hands. Not to mention, due to their absence during his whole time on Angel Island, he'd come to mentally associate the gloves with his urban, tech-oriented side, a reminder to never forget about the skills that came with it. The fact that they were bought for him by Sonic would also help. While he wasn't quite sure what the equivalent reminder of his active, fighter side should be, he guessed it could either be his shoes, which were his only physical possession while with Knuckles, or perhaps the several scars on his body.

It wasn't quite a Eureka moment, but it did seem to him that if his mind could really be reminded of both sides of himself by his own clothing, he thought with a smile, then this could really work out after all.

There was a knock on the door, and Tails whirred around to face it, before getting up to turn the knob, letting a familiar and welcome face in. "Hey, bud," Sonic said, also grinning, "you liking the new room? Or old? Whichever?"

"It's cool," the fox replied happily, though the mention of it caused him to look around and take note of its relative emptiness again, from the desk to the shelves. Right now, the books were all he had. "Hope to fill it all up again soon though."

"What, and let me trip over something in the middle of the night again?" The hedgehog laughed, as did his friend. "Nah, just playing with ya. How's it going?"

"Pretty good," Tails replied as he held the book in his hand up, "I'm relearning everything pretty quickly. Just a bit more and I can start work on the new Tornado again, at least after getting the parts, and also fix stuff up to pay back for all the money they'd given us. A lot of work ahead of me…but I know what time it is." He glanced at the bright morning sun outside. "Nice weather, huh?"

"Yeah." Sonic looked back at Tails again, still smiling, but he appeared to have something else on his mind. "Hey, before we go…could I ask ya something?"

"Sure." The fox already could guess what it was, but he was ready for it. It was something he'd been giving a lot of thought to since leaving the hospital.

"How are you doing, Tails? You holdin' up?"

After a few seconds of organizing the answer in his head, Tails began giving it. "Yeah. I'm okay, or at least I will be. And I can explain why, too." Sonic had explained himself fairly well in the hospital, so it was only appropriate that he reciprocated.

"Good to hear. So whatcha thinkin'?"

His smile faded away somewhat, since it was still a somber topic, but he was sure he wouldn't have to dwell in it for too long. "Well, I've been thinking about it since our big talk, especially, well, my mistakes. Or my side of our mistake, if you want. But hear me out. Not gonna lie, Sonic – they've scarred me. I'll never be able to forget them, and I still have nightmares sometimes. And, honestly, I don't know if I'll ever have that confidence again." He glanced downwards with all-too-familiar expression of uncertainty.

Before Sonic could go forward and coax him, however, Tails looked up again, showing clenched fists. "But what I do have is the determination. To make sure I'm as well-rounded as possible, that none of that ever happens again, that the next time we face Eggman he can't exploit the same weaknesses anymore, not after I've patched them up. I can let this experience drive me to be better overall. And, well, I've got you too. If I have to, I'll do it just as much for you as I will for myself, or possibly even more. And if that's not enough, there's still Knuckles."

Tails got up closer to Sonic, his eyes showing more resolve than ever. "That's why I think everything will be fine. It hurt, and it might always hurt. But as long as we can use that pain to make a real difference, then it's still good for something."

Upon hearing the explanation, the two stared at each other for a bit, before breaking out in smiles and hugging each other. Sonic couldn't help but be impressed at his brother's honesty and resolution. "That's…really good, bro," he said proudly as he ruffled the fur on Tails' head, "I don't know what to say."

"Well," the fox began as he pulled back, "I'm ready to help you as much as you are to help me, Sonic. Just tell me anytime."

"Sure thing." Sonic turned around and stepped outside. "I guess going out for a run around these hills would be a good start, though. For both of us."

"Alright. I'm already halfway through this book, so just give me a moment to finish up and…nah! Just kidding," Tails said with a laugh as he placed the book on the shelf, which Sonic returned. "You ready, Sonic?"

"You bet!" The hedgehog winked as he ran over to the door, the fox following closely behind. "Let's go!"

And thus did Miles 'Tails' Prower, young vulpine genius fighter engineer, follow Sonic the Hedgehog out on a high-speed run. That was the role he would play, not just for his own satisfaction, Sonic's, or anyone else's but because he had to, for the sake of a world always threatened by Eggman or others, something he truly understood now.

It was hard work, but as long as he had Sonic with him, he knew that it was possible, that nothing could come in between them. And that his balance would never waver again.

**THE END**

**Author's Note: Thanks to everyone who's read all the way here! Without your support it wouldn't have been possible. Additionally, special thanks to Phaenur for his feedback, which has really helped me out!**


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